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fO 2 1 Wfe
THE DREAM OF RAVAN

A MYSTERY

(Reprinted from “The Dublin University

Magazine,” 1853 & 1854.)

THE THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY,

7, DUKE STREET, ADELPHI,
LONDON, W.C.
HE PATH, 144 MADISON AVENUE, NEW YORK, U.S.A.

THE THEOSOPHIST OFFICE, ADYAR, MADRAS,

INDIA.

1895.
 .

?2 3
i>?i

PREFACE.
The Dream of Ravan appeared originally in a
series of articles in “ The Dublin University Maga-
zine " of 1853 , 1854 . The name of the writer has

not been disclosed ; but, whoever he was, there is no

doubt that was both a scholar and a mystic
he
That he had studied the “ Ramayana" from the
original texts and was a master of Vedantic psychology
is amply manifested; that he was a mystic himself
and spoke of things that were realities to him and not
mere empty speculations, is evident to every earnest
student of Indian theosophical literature . In no
other western publication, have the three “ states " of
man's consciousness been so strikingly and so intelligi-

bly set forth as by our author . This mystic exposition

endow such intellectual productions as Professor
will
Max Muller's “ Lectures on the Vedanta " and Dr.
Paid Deussen's “ Das System des Vedanta" with a
soul, and breathe into them the breath of life. Though
the narrative is set forth in the garb of phantasy
and much of strangeness is intermixed, so that the
general reader will pass it by as merely a strange
conceit , nevertheless the mystic and student of yoga
will recognize many a home truth but slightly veiled,
and many a secret wholly disclosed.

G. R. S. M.
 —

THE DREAM OF RAVAN.

A MYSTERY.

In the caves of Eastern Sibyl, what

curious leaves lie hidden, or go whirling
in the wind ! written over with strange,
hieroglyphic characters, not without
deep meaning — akin to prophetic,
Teste David cum Sibylla.

Fragmentary-— incomplete — hard to put

together, yet furnishing here and there,
when the attempt is made, a piece of
chance mosaic that engages our attention
like the forms in the moss-stone. Such
a bundle of Sibylline leaves is the
“ Dream of Ravan,” of which we pro-
pose to put together and interpret some
torn and ragged fragments.
Valmiki — in that musical epic, the
Ramayana, which stands beside the
 —

Iliad for antique and stately simplicity,

and for the surpassing melody of its

numbers, no less than for its elevated

morality, may fairly challenge a com-

parison with any poem in existence

has told us the main incidents in the

history of Rama and his Titanic enemy
Ravan. We need hardly inform our
readers that the Ramayana is, like the

Iliad, the story of a city besieged, for

the sake of a wife who has been unjustly
carried off. Rama, the son of Dasha-
ratha, King of Ayodhya, having been
banished for fourteen years by his father

to gratify the ambition of one of his

younger queens, Kekaiyi, who wished
to secure the succession for her own son
Bharata (an admirable illustration of
the working of polygamy), proceeds with
his incomparable wife Sita, one of the
ioveliest female creations of poetry, and
his brother the indomitable archer
 3

Lakshmana, or as he is now popularly

called, Laxuman, to wander in the wilds
of the then thinly-peopled India, ex-
ploring and admiring the magnificent
forests, rivers, and mountains which lie

in their course ;
visiting the holy sages
and hermits who live far in these wilds

unknown to public view, and slaying

demons, goblins, andgiants innumerable.
Sita, though the heroine and central
female personage round whom the whole
action of the poem and though
revolves,
the immediate cause of the war between
Rama, the religious or Brahmanical
prince of Ayodhya, the modern Oude,
and Ravan, the Titanic, or in other
words the anti-Brahmanical, aboriginal,
fetish-worshipping monarch of Lanka
or Ceylon, —
was herself but the
secondary and occasional cause. The
original mover and teterrima causa belli
was a sister of Ravan, a certain Rak-
 4

shasi or Titanic Ogress, whose nails

size and shape of the Indian
were of the
winnowing basket, and who was thence
called Shurpa-nakha, or Basket-nails.
This lady had assigned for her main-
tenance the forest of Janasthana,
covering an immense tract in the South
of India, and lived here in considerable
ease, with her brother and a large train
of attendant Rakshasas, feeding upon
the Munis or hermits who resorted in
great numbers to the recesses of this
forest, as in later ages to the Thebaid,
for the purpose of leading, with their
disciples, in its silent solitudes, a
life of holycontemplation, and
abstraction, and attaining a perfection
which was not possible amid the uproar
and the temptations of the world.
Considering the life of mortification and
self-denial which these Munis led that —
some stood on their heads, some upon
 5

one some with one or both arms

leg,

stretched over their heads some ;

hanging by their feet from the branches

of trees, with their heads downward,
and this for tens, hundreds, thousands
of years that the most luxurious ate
;

only leaves and roots, and vast numbers

were “ Vata-bhakshas,” or “wind-
eaters ” —
we fear that Basket-nails and
her Titanic court, even after the most
successful day of hermit bagging, must
have had, after all, but meagre fare.
Still the ogress was happy in her
condition, for she knew not the pangs
of love. One fatal day, however, while
prowling about in hopes of picking up a
stray Muni, she chanced to spy the
foot-print of a man, so exquisitely
beautiful that she fell instantly in love
with its possessor ;
and tracking it on
through the thicket with the sharp sense
of a roamer in the forest, she came at
 .

last upon its owner, the youthful and

beautiful Rama. The sequel we shall
give as succinctly related in the
Adhyatma Ramayana — TAranya Kanda
—Sarga V.]
Raghava, son or descendant of Raghu,
it should be stated, is a patronymic for
Rama ;
Saumitri, or son of Sumitra, a
similar patronymic forLaxuman. The
Rakshasas are the Titans and giants of
Hindu mythology, the fiends and ghouls
of the Hindu cemetery, the ogres and
goblins of the Hindu nursety.

The Unhappy Love of the Rakshasi or

Titaness Shurpa-nakha and the Tragic
Consequences of her Revenge.

Translated from the Sanscrit.

In the great forest just then a Rakshasi,

changing her form at will,
Of terrible strength, went roaming about,
dwelling in Janasthana,
 —

Once on a time, on the Gautami* banks, not

farfrom the Five Banian Trees,
The foot-prints of the Universe Lord, marked
with the lotus petals,
Chancing to see, inflamed with love, bewitched
by the beautiful feet,
Tracking them onward, slowly she came at last
to the dwelling of Rama.
There that lord of prosperity, along with Sita
abiding,
Beholding beautiful as Kandarpa, intoxicated
with love,
The Rakshasi spoke to Raghava Who and : —
of whom art thou ? in this hermitage what
Seekest thou to accomplish, with hair coiled up
and clothing of bark ? this unto me declare.
I am a Rakshasi, taking all forms at will
Shur pa-nakha my name ;

Sister I am to the king of the Rakshasas,

Ravana the magnanimous.
Here in this forest I dwell, together with Khara,
my brother.
Unto me by the king the whole has been given.
I live by devouring Munis.
Who thou art I desire to know — tell me, most
eloquent speaker.
—
To her he replied: My name is Rama, the son
of the king of Ayodhya ;

This beautiful woman is Sita, my wife, the

daughter of (King) Janaka ;

That exceedingly handsome youth my younger

brother, Laxuman.
Another name for Godavari.
 ——— —

What isthy wish that I can accomplish ? tell

me, Ouniverse beauty !

Hearing these words of Rama, in anguish from

love she replied
Come to the forest, O Rama, with me; come
sport in mountain and grove.
I am sick with love I cannot relinquish thee
;

with thy lotus eyes.

Rama, glancing a sidelong look towards Sita,
said with a smile
This is my wife, happy in me, whom I never
quit for a moment.
How, without pain to her, my wife, canst thou
become mine, O fair one ?
Without stands my brother, Laxuman, a youth
surpassingly handsome ;

He’ll be a suitable husband for thee. Go,

wander about with him.
Thus addressed, she said to Laxuman Be —
thou my husband, O handsome youth.
Obeying thy brother’s commands, to-day let us
be united ;
do not delay.
Thus to Laxuman spoke the terrible Rakshasi,
overcome with desire.
To her thus Laxuman —
Good lady, I am the
slave of that high-minded one.
Thou wilt become his female slave. O, what
more wretched than this !

Go to himself, good luck to thee he is a king ;

the Lord of all.

Thus bespoken, the evil-minded one turned
again to Raghava :

Why dost thou make a fool of me thus, with

anger she cried, unstable one ?
 9

This moment, before thy very eyes, this Sita of

thine I’ll devour.
Thus saying, assuming a hideous form, she
rushed on the daughter of Janaka.
Then, by the order of Rama, drawing his
sword and seizing her,
Laxuman, nimble mover, slit off her nose and
ears.
Then uttering a terrible roar her body —
—
streaked over with blood with speed,
Screeching, she flew to the presence of Khara,
in utterance discordant.
What is all this ? cried Khara to her, still
harsher in his utterance.
By whom, rushing into the jaws of death, wert
thou thus lacerated ?
Tell me him will I instantly slay tho’ he
;

resembled Fate.
To him the Rakshasi thus —
Attended by Sita
:

and Laxuman, Rama

Dwells upon the Godavari banks, freeing the
Dandaka forest from fear.
’Tis his brother hath maimed me thus, by
Rama himself commanded.
If thou art a son of a noble race — if a hero,
slay these enemies,
That I may drink up their blood and devour
the arrogant pair,
Otherwise I, abandoning life, will go to the
dwelling of Yama.
This hearing, Khara rushed hastily forth, out
of himself with anger ;

And fourteen thousand Rakshasas, terrible in

their deeds,

v
 ;

IO

He commanded to march upon Rama, thro’

desire to effect his slaughter.
And Khara himself, and Trishiras, and Dus-
hana,* the Rakshas — /
,

All went forth against Rama, with manifold

weapons armed.
Hearing their tumult, Rama thus spoke to the
son of Sumitra
Hark to this mighty uproar doubtless the !

Rakshasas come
’Twixt them and me of a truth this day will be
fought a mighty battle.
Lead Sita away, and go to the cave and there, ;

O mighty one, stand.

All the Rakshasas, horrible-shaped, I am
desirous to slay.
In this not a word must thou utter I by my- :

self adjure thee.

Obedient, leading Sita away, Laxuman went to
the cave.
Rama, girding his zone around him, taking his
cruel bow,
And of arrows two inexhaustible quivers bind-
ing, the lord stood ready.
Then the Rakshasas, marching up, hurled
forth upon Rama
Weapons of manifold form, and fragments of
rocks and trees.
Those in a moment Rama asunder cleft, in
sport, like sesamum seeds ;

* All these names are significant. “Khara” means-

harsh ;
“ Trishiras,” three heads “ Dushana,” crime.
;
 — — —

II

Then with a thousand arrows slaughtering all

those Rakshasas,
Khara also, and Trishiras and Dushana the
Rakshas
The whole he slew within half a watch, the
eminent son of Raghu.
Laxuman, too, having brought forth Sita out of
the cave, to Rama
Delivering her up, beholding the Rakshasas
slain, was filled with astonishment.
Sita, embracing Rama, with a countenance
beaming joy,
The daughter Janaka brushed* the wounds
of
of the weapons upon his limbs.
But She, beholding those eminent chiefs of the
Rakshasas slain, fled away.
—
Hastening to Lanka into the council scream-
ing she rushed, and down at the feet of
Ravan,
* Fromthe word used here, as well as from the com-
mentary, there is little doubt that Sita is here described
as having, by mesmeric passes downward, completely
healed the bruises and wounds inflicted by the Raksha-
sas. The words of the commentary are remarkable
“ Shastra Vranani mdrjita rudhirani puma gartcini
Satya-Sankalpatvach — —
Chakd etyarthaha. ’ ’

“ This is the sense Brushing the bloody wounds of the

weapons, she filled up the cavities by the volition of pure in-
tention

The “ brushing ” indicates the mesmeric traction the ;

“ filling up the cavities,” the perfect healing of the

—
wounds; the “volition of pure intention” the strong
will and pure intention laid down by Du Potet and others
as so necessary to success in mesmeric operations.
 — : —

12

She, the Titan’s sister, fell prostrate upon the

earth.
Beholding her, Ravan addressed his sister thus
overcome with terror
Arise, poor darling, arise The deed of maim-
!

ing thee thus,

Tho’ by Indra ’twere done, O auspicious ! by
Yama or by Varuna;
Or by Kuvera, relate unto me. I will instantly
burn him to ashes.
The Rakshasi thus replied: Thou art arrogant
overmuch and stolid of mind ;

Given over to drink, by women o’ercome, thou

art everywhere seen as a fool
—
Without any spies those eyes of a monarch
O, how canst thou be a king?
Lo Khara lies
! slaughtered in battle ;
Trishiras,
and Dushana too,
And fourteen thousand other Rakshasas, all of
them mighty in spirit,
Have been in a moment by Rama slain, the
enemy of Asuras.
The whole Janasthana forest now he has
rendered safe for the Munish& Hi&vT
; i.

And thou, O foolish one, knowest it not ;

to
thee by me it is told !

Ravan.

Who is this Rama? For what and how, by

him were the Asuras slaughtered ?
Relate unto me exactly. I will utterly extir-
pate them.
 ! —

13

Shurpa-naka.

From the Janasthana forest once to the

Gautami’s bank as I went,
I came to an ancient asyium of Munis, bearing
the name of the Five Banian Trees.*
There within a hermitage I beheld the lotus-
eyed Rama,
Glorious, holding arrows and bow, with hair
coiled up, and clad in bark ;

And, even in like manner arrayed, his younger

brother Laxuman
—
;

And the large-eyed Sita his beaut iful wife

like a second Goddess Shri.
Among Gods, Gandharvas, or Nagas, among
mankind, such a being
—
Was never beheld was heard of never, O
King, with her beauty illuming the forest
Making endeavours to bring her away, O sin-
less one, for thy wife,
Her brother, Laxuman named, slit off my nose
—
And both my ears that mighty one, com-
manded thus by Rama.
Weeping from intense anguish, I went and
sought out Khara.
Then he, in battle assailing Rama, with multi-
tudes of Rakshasas,
Thereupon in a moment, by that strength-
resplendent Rama
All those Rakshasas were destroyed so—
terrible in prowess.

Panchavati.
 ! ; ! !

H
If Rama wished it, the whole three worlds, in
half a twinkling of the eye,
He would doubtless reduce
to ashes so, my ;

lord, appears to me.

it

Ah were she but thy wife then hadst thou

! —
not been born in vain
Now endeavour, O King, that she thy beloved
become.
Sita, with eyes like lotus leaves, alone in the
world is beautiful.
Thou, in the presence of Rama Lord, canst —
never openly stand
By magic the excellent son of Raghu bewitch-
ing, thou shalt obtain her.
Hearing this, by soothing words, by gifts and
by marks of honour,
Consoling his sister the monarch retired into his
own apartment.
There with anxiety filled, he could get no sleep
through the night.
“ How by Rama, merely a man, was my power-
ful Khara destroyed
How was my brother, alas with strength and !

courage and pride, destroyed by the son of

Raghu
Or is it that Rama is not a man, but the most
high Lord himself,
Me and my army desiring to slay, with his
multitude of forces ?

That besought by Brahma of old, to-day he

appears in the race of Raghu ?
If I’m to be slain by the Spirit Supreme, I
shall win the Vaikunta* kingdom.
* The celestial kingdom of Vishnu or Hari.
 —

i5

long this kingdom Titanic enjoy;

If not, I shall
I march against Rama.”
will, therefore,
Thus reflected the monarch of all the Raksha-
sas, knowing Rama for Hari, the Lord
Supreme,
**
By hostile intention to Hari I go ;
not soon
”
the Supreme by devotion is won !

Thus was cast and the fatal

the die
resolve taken, upon grounds that must
appear strange to European minds
viz., that hostile struggle with, and
death at the hands of Vishnu, incarnate
in the person of Rama, so far from being
a punishment to the soul, was its

triumph —was in fact union with the

Deity ;
a more rapid and royal road for
its attainment, than the slow and
wearisome path of devotion. Thus all

Ravan’s subsequent violence and crime

receives a religious colouring. However
the slave of earthly passion to the eyes
of men, his whole conduct was really
motived upon this determination to
bring on the beatific catastrophe, and
 i6

speed the collision which was to unite

him with the supreme soul of the
world ; — an interpretation of action,
which, however startling, seems to flow,
as a necessary result, from a pantheistic
view of the universe.
Ravan, soon after, carries off Sita,
Rama’s wife, to the great scandal of his
own queen, the virtuous Titaness,
“ Mandodari,” who seems to have been
a very corpulent lady, as that name,
unless rendered by the singular term
which St. Paul applies to the Cretans,
must be translated euphuistically
“ weighty-stomach.” The name, how-
ever, is not worse than that which our
fair Ulster friends apply to their sisters
of a dark complexion ;
and which is, in

the south, applied indiscriminately to

all the natives of the barony of Forth.
Rama, assisted by an army of talking
monkeys —a race, we believe, not yet
 17

extinct in India, nor perhaps elsewhere

—under the command of Hanumanta,
an astonishing leaper and marcher, who
is to this day worshipped in India, and

has a celebrated temple in Bombay,

marches to the south in pursuit ;
bridges
over the straits of Manaar ;
besieges
the Titan’s capital, Lanka, perhaps the
present Candy; and after Indrajit, the
heroic son of Ravan and Mandodari,
has fallen to the bow of Laxuman, and
several other leadingchiefsof the Titanic
army and burns Lanka,
are killed, takes
slays the ten-headed Titan, and recovers
Sita, whom Ravan had never been able
to prevail upon to listen to his love,
either by flatteries or threats.
What Homer’s battle of the frogs and
mice is Dream of Ravan
to the Iliad, the
is to the Ramayana for although there
;

is in it much of sad and serious, all

these graver parts are bound together
B
 i8

by matter of a light and sometimes

ludicrous character. It is free in this
respect as Don Juan and, after rising
;

from a perusal, one may be puzzled to

decide if the whole poem is to be taken
as having a deep and serious moral, or
is a mere jeu d' esprit. It may be
reasonably doubted if Valmiki is the
author. Indeed, we have little hesitation
in pronouncing our verdict against that
view ;
for although it contains some
descriptions, as we shall see, resembling
passages in the Ramayana and though ;

some of the epithets, such as the “ Ten-

headed,” “matchless archer,” “as-
tonishing marcher,” correspond very
closely with those applied by Valmiki
to Ravan, Laxuman, and Hanumanta
respectively, these coincidences are to
be expected from an imitator. There
are, moreover, apparent anachronisms
which militate against Valmiki’s author-
 i9

•ship,and the prophecies of the future

state of India, uttered by the Rishis to
Ravan, are at least suggestive of grave
suspicion.
The poem opens abruptly —upon the
Ravan from a hard-fought day
return of
with Rama and Laxuman. He retires
to sleep, attended by his Titanic queen
Mandodari has a fearful dream and
; ;

awaking in alarm, summons, like Bel-

shazzar, all his wise men and counsellors,
and especially the whole tribe of Yogis,
—
Munis, and Rishis ascetics, saints, and
holy sages, who, singular to say, are
found in invariable attendance on, and
apparently held in reverence in the
Titanic Court — to interpret its meaning.
The first canto of the poem is, from
this assembly, called the Sabha Parva,
or “ Canto of the Assembly ” and
;

•opens shortly after Indrajit is slain.

The main action of the poem, in the
 —

20

first Kanda or section of this Parva,

consists in the alternate narrative of
Ravan, and utterances, chiefly vedantic
and always oracular, by the chorus of
Rishis, or assembled sages, which give
the whole poem a dramatic cast.
In the subsequent Kandas, a third
interlocutor is introduced, a youthful
Seer, in whom the Rishis awaken, by
laying theirhands (mesmerically ?) upon
his head, the dnyana drishti or “ gnostic
,

vision,” which is evidently clairvoyance.

Thus illumined, he proceeds, at the
request of Ravan, to picture as present,,
the scenes of a far futurity, in which
Ravan shall be engaged.
We now proceed to quote the opening,,
and a considerable portion of the first

Kanda of the Sabha Parva.

Sabha Parva. Kanda 1.

Hark to the rushing and clangour, the snorting,,

and galloping rattle
 ;

21

^Tis Ravan the ten-headed Titan to Lanka

come home from the battle
With Rama the Prince of Ayodhya, and Laxu-
man matchless archer,
And Hanumanta the chief of the monkeys,
that most astonishing marcher.
Down from his chariot of polished steel the
Titan monarch descended,
And straight to his lofty sleeping chamber
overlooking Lanka ascended ;

There having doffed his coat of mail, and hung

up his tenfold crown,
And quaffed a dozen mashaks of wine, the Ten-
headed laid him down.
And he called his magnanimous wife, the
Titaness Mandodari,
And he told her beside him to take her seat
upon a bearskin godari
And shampoo his limbs while he went to sleep,
for he felt fatigued and weary
With all the combating he had had on that day
of battle dreary.
Out of his twice five noses the Titan soon was
snoring
As loud as if a hundred lions were all in a
concert roaring.
But his slumbers were not refreshing, his sleep
seemed sorely troubled
His body uneasily rolled about, and often was
upward doubled ;

His twenty arms were tossed aloft with all

their rattling bones,
His ten heads started fearfully, and he uttered
forth smothered moans ;
 —

22

All his faces were deadly pale, for he saw some

terribledream,
And at last he started up 'and woke, with a
wild tremendous scream !

Mandodari asked in alarm, What aileth thee

so, my
lord ?
What fearful dream or vision thy refreshing
sleep hath marred ?

Summon the council, cried Ravan aloud, the

Rishis and holy sages,
The astrologers and dream-expounders, and
readers of destiny’s pages ;

For I have dreamt an astonishing dream, me

feareth it bodes disaster
Speed for the Rishis and Councillors, why don’t
the slaves run faster ?
The nagara drums struck up at once, and the
kettle-drums rub-a-dub,
And, ere ten minutes were over, all Lanka was
in a hubbub ;

And into the palace, with sleepy eyes, came the

yawning counsellors trooping,
With descending beards, and matted hair,
from the weight of their ages stooping,
Next came the Senapatis and other heroic com-
manders,
The fire-eating chiefs 'of Akali youths, and
similar salamanders,
Brahmins and Panta-Pradhanas, and Rishis
and holy sages,
Astrologers and dream-expounders, and readers
of destiny’s pages.
 ; — ;

23

The grave assemblage respectful stood, silent,

with joined hands,
Wondering what meant this hurried summons,
awaiting the monarch’s commands.
Solemnly looking upon the assemblage, Ravan
the silence broke,
Respectfully bowing down to his Guru, thus
the Ten-headed spoke :

Hearken, ye bearded sages, ye Rishis emaciated,

Ye Yogis with matted hair, and arms stretched
upwards and elongated,
Ye venerable warriors, and Akali heroes
elated,
Ye sleek-headed men of worldly wisdom, with
proportions round and fair,
Whom out of your beds I have dragged reluc-
tant, into the cold night air
This night when weary from battle I came,
and laid me down to sleep,
I dreamt a dream that troubles my mind, for I
heard Mandodari weep,
And other voices of lamentation, that of evil
omen seem ;

Interpret me, I command you, sages, the signi-

ficance of my dream.

The Dream of Ravan.

I wandered, methought, in a wonderful land
from which all life had fled,
Where everything was turned to stone, or
desolate, or dead,
And silent cities in the desert, profounder
deserts spread
 ; ! !

24

Along their sad and lonely streets there moved

no living crowd,
Within the vast colossal fanes no breathing
votary bowed
The warrior and his war-horse, the monarch
and his bride,
The priest, the god, the victim — alike were
petrified.
The maiden and her poor pet cat lay lifeless
side by side.
Gigantic forms of life gone by looked out at you
from stone,
With a sad, eternal beauty, that time had not
overthrown,
And wailing, as the sun arose, they uttered
forth a moan.

Chorus of Rishis.

Ten-headed Ravan beware, beware,

!

How even in a dream thou venturest there ;

’Tis the land mysterious of those that mourn :

On the wings of the wind thou thither may’st

g°,
But woe for Mandodari O woe !

Canst thou, wilt thou safe return ?

Ah no
Ravan.

In that land of the silent and desolate I

wandered not all alone,
For beside me there moved a beautiful one,
whom I loved and called my own ;
 —— — — !

25

And yet altho’ she appeared as one I had

known from eternity,
It was my
not this magnanimous
queen the
dusky Mandodari :

She seemed as tho’ she were one with whom,

in some long anterior birth,
Hundreds of thousands of years before, I had
been the companion on earth.
Chorus of Rishis.

Ravan, Ravan, thou errest, beware

Hearken to this truth sublime
To the spirit is no time,
—
Past or future space or clime
—
Before or after here or there,
In its own, its primordial state
Of unity, purity, power and grace,
In itself it mirrors all finite fate,
Possessing in one-ness, gazing on all
That hath befallen, or shall ever befall
Its evolution in time and space
Events and relations, persons and things,
Actings and thinkings, and utterings,
Been or to be, in its finite race,
All are in unity seen and possessed,
As present at once, without where or when
Such is the universal range
Of the spirit’s boundless ken,
Such the eternal spirit life,
Without succession, devoid of change,
Duality, passion, or strife,
Condition of the free, the doubly blest
Highest activity, in unbroken rest
 ;

26

Three-fold being, thought, and bliss

Crowding in one happiness !

In the eternal Now of that high sphere,

Which ever was and is, and will be there,
In that all-comprehending infinite Here,
Which circling boundless, centres everywhere,.
Within that recapitulated All,
Where person mergeth in impersonal,
Which It, and I, indifferent we call,
All scenes and all events, all times and places,
All persons, gestures, speeches, voices, faces,
To be encountered in our finite days,
Are present to the spirit’s sense and gaze.
Hence often man, chancing on some new scene,
Whither in life his footsteps never bore,
Hearing some voice, meeting some well-marked
mien,
Feels vaguely, all familiar were of yore ;

He seems to live again scenes lived or dreamt

before,
And wonders where or how it could have been.

They are seen by the spirit rapt and sublime,

Not in a former, but out of time, all
When retiring backward into itself
From the world of sense, and passion, and pelf,.
And concentrated in that deep
Mysterious and illumined sleep,
The body’s trance, the spirit’s seeing,
Its own primordial mode, ecstatic being,
Its infinite nature it contemplates
As mirrored forth in the temporal fates,
Which await on its goings forth as a soul
 —

27

For then the universal sum

Of its destinies past, or in time to come,
Lie open before it like a scroll.

’Twas thus, O Ten-headed Ravan, with thee ;

Not ages ago in a former birth,

As thou thoughtest, wert thou her companion
on earth,
But in ages of ages yet to come,
On thy forehead and on thy thumb
It is written that thou shalt be.

Before all time —beyond—beside,

Thou rememberest her eternally,
For she is thy spirit’s primeval bride,
The complement of thy unity,
Joined or dissevered, averted or fond,
’Twixt her and thee an eternal bond
Exists, which, tho’ ye were to seek,
Ye cannot ever, ever break
A bond from whence there is no freeing,
Since the typal spirit never
From its antitype can sever,
She is a portion of thy being
To all eternity.

Ravan.
Her cheeks were very pale, loosely bound her
flaxen hair,
And the face was that of childhood, so simple,
small and fair ;

But that child-like face, tho’ beautiful, looked

sorrowful and wan.
And from the circlet on her brow, two living
gems were gone ;
 28

Her hair was decked with coral sprigs and

beautiful sea-weed,
And a scarf of crimson sea-moss across her
shoulders hung ;

Her feet were small and delicate, the shingle

made them bleed,
So she sat her down to wash them the Babul
trees among.
She listened to the wind that sighed thro’ bul-
rush and thro’ reed,
And she joined the plaintive dirge, and a low
sweet ditty sung.

Song of the Mysterious Wanderer.

I saw a vision once, and it sometimes reappears,
I know not if ’twas real, for they said I was
not well ;

But often as theSun goes down my eyes fill up

with tears,
And then that vision comes, and I see my
Floribel.

The day was going softly down, the breeze had

died away,
The waters from the far west came slowly
rolling on,
The sky, the clouds, the ocean wave, one molten
glory lay,
All kindled into crimson by the deep red Sun.

As silently I stood and gazed before the glory

passed,
There rose a sad remembrance of days long
gone;
 ;

29

My youth, my childhood came again, my mind

was overcast,
As I gazed upon the going down of that red
Sun.
I thought on the beloved dead, the beautiful,
the dear,
The hearts that once were warm with life,
the loving ones now gone
The voices that like marriage bells rang sweetly
on my ear,
The eyes that once had gazed with mine on
that red Sun.

The past upon my spirit rushed, the dead were

standing near,
Their cheeks were warm again with life, their
winding sheets were gone,
Their voices rang like marriage bells once more
upon my ear,
Their eyes were gazing there with mine on
that red Sun.

Many days have passed since then, many

chequered years
I have wandered far and wide — still I fear I
am
not well ;

For often as the Sun goes down, my eyes fill up

with tears,
And then that vision comes, and I see my
Floribel.

Ah ! never sank in human heart more deeply

touching sound,
 ; ; —

30

Than from the low and child-like voice that

sang that pensive song
Never lute woke melody more varied or profound,
Than to those fairy fingers as they ran its
cords along.

0 wonder of creation O beauteous female hand.

!

That o’er such various elements can exercise

command !

1 saw her with that little hand control the Yavan

steed,
And check him in the desert while careering at
speed
full ;

With that evolving fabric, so exquisitely fine,

More fabulous in texture than Vishvakarma
spun,
With that she woke on canvas such forms of
life divine,
The champas blow, the parrots talk, the
speckled cobras twine,
You smell the fragrance of the flowers, you
hear the stag hounds run,
You feel the Penitent’s return and weep with
sire and son.

Nor lived she in the transcendent sphere

Of art and the beautiful alone
High intellect and reason clear,
And philosophy their daughter dear,
Had erected upon her brow a throne,
And shared her mind with the ideal
The actual, and the unseen real,
Claiming her equally for their own.
 — —

31

Marking her sylph-like figure, and her pensive

features small,
You thought her the fairy child to whom un-
earthly bard might sing
Whose hand might sadly touch the lute, or
sweep the virginal,
Embroider a drooping violet, or paint a
butterfly’s wing.
But go to her chamber, and there behold
The ponderous folios that range,
Written all over with characters old,
Classic, and beautiful, and bold,
Recondite, rare, and strange :

And all this deep, mysterious lore,

Whose every dark and sibylline page
Studious youth and thoughtful age
Might meditate and ponder o'er,
And grow more learned and more sage,
And not exhaust, if haply understand,
—
All was the labour labour loved, severe,
Labour pursued thro’ many a painful year
By that small, fragile, but unresting hand!
With such manifold gifts, such mystic learning,
With a subtle power of thought discerning,
And an unappeasable yearning
Towards all pure, and good,
that is
And noble, and beautiful, and high,
And infinite as the deep blue sky,
Alone upon earth she stood,
Alone in her delicate soul and lofty mood
Of the friends that she loved and looked upon
Read truly, loved, by only one,
By others misunderstood.
 — —

32

On the awful mystery round

She gazed with a sadness profound,
That oft brought the tears to her eye,
And the light ones around her wondered why f

The creatures she loved in life,

She wept like a child in death.
With her living cat she had playful strife,
She received with tears her dying breath.
She mourned o’er the drooping bird
And the withering flower :

—
She wondered she had never heard
Why such a dark and terrible power
As death, should over all things lower.
Nothing beautiful seemed to live,
Nothing that joy could give
Endured an hour !

With the fathomless eyes of a dove,

And the power of an infinite love,
That nothing on earth could satisfy.
For something unknown she would ever sigh,
For some far-off country pine,
And all joy of the present decline.

Chorus of Rishis.
Ah Ravan, couldest thou not tell why
! ?

Knowest thou not the mark and sign

Of the soul descended from on high
That claims its kindred with the sky ?
To such no permanent rest is given
Short of its native heaven.
Love after love, joy after joy,
Rejecting like a worn-out toy,
Till upward ever drawn and tending,
 —

33

From trial cloud to cloud ascending ;

All earthly hopes away are cast,

All earthly loves resigned and past,
And the spirit so weak and weary deemed,
Enlightened, strengthened, and redeemed,
Triumphant rests at last,
Never again to roam,
In its own, its native home,
Its love primordial, and its last
The Love divine !

Ravan.
Oft would she steal away
To sit and think alone,
Seated apart on some grey stone,
Or from the lattice of ruin lone
With moss and ivy all overgrown,
Watch the receding day,
Or the moon as it rose over hills and bay,
Or upward turn her gaze afar
Upon some solitary star,
Its brighteye tearful as her own.
She loved to look upon the sea,
In whatever fitful mood it might be
To watch its swelling, white-crested waves
Dash with a hollow sound
And a hollower rebound
Among the rugged rocks and caves
That hem it round.
She loved the moaning of the wind,
For it harmonised with her pensive mind ;

And, were no profane intruder there,

Her amber tresses she would unbind
And woo it to sigh thro’ her hair.
c
 ;

34

Oft to her ear she would hold a mottled shell,

And listen as if to sounds that she knew full
well,
And loved, and heard with deep emotion,
For they seemed over memory’s track
To bring all her childhood back.
And some coral-embowered home that lay
Far, far, far away
In the depths of the dark blue ocean.

Oft I wondered who could she be,

This wonderful being, thus linked with me,
Was she some fairy princess, or some syren of
the sea ?
For oft she was seen to sit alone on the rocks,
Holding a mirror in her hand, dressing her
flowing locks,
And as she combed her amber hair,
She sang again that low sweet song,
That softly stole the waves along,
And rose so mournful thro’ the air,
The very sea-birds gathered round
To hear so sweet and sad a sound.
One thing in my dream I remember well,
That I called her beloved Zingarel
And from this, methinks, she must have been
Some syren or nymph of the ocean green,
For every one knows that the Zingarels
Are the tiny rose-coloured mermaid belles
That float on the waves in the summer calms,
Andsport about
When the tide is out
Round the beautiful Isle of Palms.
On her wrist was bound an amulet
 35

Which she had never relinquished yet,

For an ancient sage named, Rajarshi,
When walking the earth, of old, in disguise,
As a poor faquir, selling medical roots,
And metallic powders and Tulsi shoots,
And charms against agues and evil eyes,
From her gracious hand, with that gracious
smile
That speaketh the heart without grudging or
guile,
Receiving food and a bright rupee
In token of womanly charity ;

Had gratefully bound it upon her arm

As a precious talisman and charm
To guard her from all future harm ;

Twas a tiny white cow of the sea,

Not bigger I ween than a humble bee ;

In a crystal grotto she was shut,

And only now and then let out,
For a minute or two, lest she should pout.
In the deepest recesses of this grot
Was a fairy lake, in a shady spot,
Where miniature corals and sea-weed grew,
And crystals, and pebbles, and speckled
shells,
And hanging spars like icicles,
And tiny sea-flowers of every hue ;

Here in this quiet, secluded lake,

The little sea-cow would her pleasure take,
And paddle about in the brine,
Would swim and feed
On fresh sea-weed,
And her name was Chrystalline.
 3^

When you opened the grotto the little cow

Would give a joyful, inaudible low,
Then playfully come to the door and greet
Your sense with her sanative breath so sweet.,
’Twas far more ravishing to the nose
Than breath of jasmine, or the rose
That on the Pahlavi mountain grows.
But the little sea-cow had a diamond horn,
That was sharp as a needle to the touch,
And if either in love, in frolic, or scorn,
You teased the little creature much,
Or keep its grotto open long,
would suddenly make a rush at the door,
It
For the creature, tho’ little, was swift and strong,.
And half in anger, and half in joke,
With its horn would give your nose such a
poke
As would make you stagger and roar ;

But after a minute or two again

Her sanative breath would ascend your brain,.
Infuse fresh vigour, assuage your pain,
And leave you livelier than before.

At this point the assembly is startled

by a cry of grief, which is found to pro-
ceed from the Queen of Ravan, the
“ dusky Mandodari.” She had been
an attentive listener to the transcen-
dental delivery of the Rishis, and reads
in it her own displacement and dis-
 37

severance from Ravan. We believe

few of our fair married readers would

feel any very poignant emotions of grief,

at being informed that some thousands
of years hence, they would no longer
occupy their present relation to their
husbands. It is even to be feared,
that the vast majority would be in ab-
solute despair at the idea of the rela-
tion continuing one tenth part of the
time. Even those most happily cir-
cumstanced might wince a little at the
prospect of such a dreadful monotony
of happiness ! What ? “ toujour per-
s
drix ” through all eternity ! It must be
confessed the “ perdrix ” should be a
very bird of paradise, yea, a phcenix
renewing youth, like the eagles, not
its

to weary and bore the “ varium et muta-

bile ” through so long a duration. But
in that circle of ideas in which Mando-
dari was brought up it is otherwise.
 38

The ideal of happiness to the Hindu

female a perpetuity of renewed union
is

with the one “ lord of her life.” And,

as none of those who have been thus
beatified have ever come back, and
hinted what a bore the reality is, the
ideal still maintains its place, and
serves its moral purpose. The Chorus,
therefore, compelled to find an ade-
is

quate solution of the nodus. For

Mandodari’s virtues and fidelity render
it worthy of a vindicator ;
and a per-
petual theodicea is a part of their very
office. To the sad cry, therefore,
“ Woe ! Woe ! Woe !

Whither shall poor Mandodari go ?”

they adminster what to the disinterested

affection and elevated spiritualism of
the dusky —
queen, for notwithstanding
the bulky corporeity which her name
indicates, and which might render it a
heavy infliction on the horses that
 39

would have, were she living in these

modern times, to draw her carriage
when she went out for an airing or
—
drove to the band notwithstanding
this unfortunate “stoutness,” the dusky
Mandodari is clearly of a lofty and
spiritual nature, and capable of entire
self-sacrifice, though the powerful spiri-

tual element in her is unconscious, and

unawakened by intelligence ;
and to
such a nature the Rishis administer
what is an ample consolation ;
though
we fear the proud dames whose gar-
ments sweep the ground of modern
drawing-rooms, and their husband’s
pockets into the bargain, would deem
it rather humiliating. Mandodari is
told not to mourn. She, too, the Cho-
rus informs her, stands in an eternal
relation to Ravan and here follows
;

an authoritative utterance on Hindu

psychology, which we shall endeavour
 4°

to render as intelligible in prose as so

dark a subject can be made. The
metrical outpouring of the Chorus, like
all metaphysics in verse, would, we
fear, be hopelessly obscure to the un-
initiated reader.
Any one who has ever dabbled in
Hindu philosophy must have been
somewhat puzzled by the three radical,
shall we say prismatic, qualities, into
which the primordial and eternal unity
divides itself, when reflected in time,
through the prism of Maya, into the
multitudinous universe ;
and of which
every soul, while in this estranged state,
partakes in greater or less degree.
These qualities, Tamas, Rajas ,
and
Satva, have been translated generally,
the first, Darkness ;
the second, Passion
or Foulness (Turbidness ?) ;
the third,
Truth or Goodness. Schlegel renders
them caligo ,
impetus, essentia, the word
 :

41

Sat meaning primarily Being, and

secondarily, Truth or Goodness, because
that which beeth is alone true, and alone
good. The Bhagavad Gita goes briefly
into the subject of their nature and in-

fluence in the fourteenth Lecture.

“ There are ” (says Krishna, address-
ing Arjuna) “ three Goon or qualities
arising from Prakreetee or nature
Satva truth, Raja passion, and Tama
darkness ;
and each of them confineth
the incorruptible spirit in the body.
The Satva- Goon, because of its purity,
is clear and free from defect, and en-
twineth the soul with sweet and plea-
sant consequences, and the fruit of
wisdom. The Raja - Goon is of a pas-
sionate nature, arising from the effects
of worldly thirst, and imprisoneth the
soul with the consequences produced
from action. The Tama-Goon is the
offspring of ignorance, and the con-
 42

founder of all the faculties of the mind,

and it imprisoneth the soul with in-
toxication, sloth, and idleness. The
Satva- Goon prevaileth in felicity, the
Raja in action, and the Tama having ,

possessed the soul, prevaileth in intox-

ication. When the Tama and the Raja
have been overcome, then the Satva
appeareth ;
when the Raja and the
Satva the Tama', and
,
when the Tama
and the Satva, the Raja. When Gnan,
or wisdom shall become evident in this
body at all its gates, then shall it be
known that the Satva- Goon is prevalent
within. The love of gain, industry,
and the commencement of works, in-
temperance, and inordinate desire, are
produced from the prevalency of the
Raja- Goon, whilst the tokens of the
Tama- Goon are gloominess, idleness,
sottishness, and distraction of thought.
When the body is dissolved, whilst the
 43

Satva- Goon prevaileth, the soul pro-

ceedeth to the regions of those immacu-
late beings who are acquainted with
the Most High. When the body
findeth dissolution whilst the Raja-
Goon is predominant, the soul is born
again amongst those who are attached
to the fruits of their actions. So, in
like manner, should the body be dis-
solved whilst the Tama-Goon is preva-
lent, the spirit is conceived again in
the wombs of irrational beings. The
fruit of good works is called Satvika

and pure the fruit of the Raja-Goon is

;

pain, and the fruit of the Tama-Goon

is ignorance. From the Satva is pro-
duced wisdom, from the Raja, covetous-
ness, and from the Tama, madness,
distraction, and ignorance. Those of
the Satva- Goon mount on high ;
those
of the Raja stay in the middle ;
whilst
those abject followers of the Tama-
Goon sink below.”
 —

44

But in other authorities the Tamas

quality appears more clearly explained,
and from this it is evident that its de-
merit is negative. It is the absence of all
knowledge, feeling, motion, penetra-
bility, transparency. It is, in fact,
what may appear a strange expression,
the moral basis of matter ;
or, in other
words, that stolid state or form of spirit,
which causes it to appear and be what
we call matter.
Makunda Raja, in his relation of the
order of creation [Viveka Sindhu,
Section III., v. 72, 73] says :

“ Know the three-fold egoity or self-conscious-

ness (Ahankara) to be the Satvika or self-con- ,

sciousness of Truth or Goodness the Rajasa ; ,

or self-consciousness of Passion and the Tamasa

;

or self-consciousness of Darkness in each of ;

which respectively, a power or energy peculiar

to it, appears radiantly developed.
“ In the self-consciousness of Truth or Good-
ness, is the power or energy of knowledge or
wisdom in the self-consciousness of Passion,
;

resideth the power or energy of action in the ;

self-consciousness of Darkness, existeth inces-

 45

santly the power or energy of substance or

matter (dravya).”

The Tamas quality, therefore, we may

consider as the great characteristic of
brute matter, insensibility, opacity, cold
obstruction, immovability ; — in optics,

the dark purple or violet ray ;

— in
morals, the sluggish, material, brutish
tendency. Its highest form of organic
development goes not beyond the mere
animal life and the region of sense.
The Rajas is the characteristic of
moral life, or soul ;
the dark opacity is

penetrated with a fiery and turbid glare,

but not yet rendered purely trans-
parent ;
the cold obstruction and in-

sensibility are wakened into pangs of

painful movement the dark purple or
;

violet has kindled into the red ray.

The sensational has struggled into the
emotional ;
sentiment has supplanted
sense and blind impulse.
 ;

46

The Satva is the characteristic of

spirit ;
spirit indeed still in antithesis
to body and soul, to matter and life

and, therefore, though bright, luminous,

and glorious, still partaking of dis-
tinction,and bound in the chains of in-
dividuality and limitation the orange ;

ray in optics, ready to escape and lose

itself in the pure light- The feeling
soul compelled by suffering into a pro-
founder self-consciousness and reflec-

tion, passion has risen into reason and

knowledge. Self-knowledge, reasoning
outward, progresses into universal sym-
pathy. The life of emotion reaches its

consummation, and all other passions

expire in an eternal
giving birth to
sentiment of justice and love, which are
ultimately one.
Thus, as sense was wakened into
passion or sentiment —sentiment itself

has risen into eternal principle : and, as

 47

the sensual life of blind animal impulse

was kindled into the heroic life of
passion, the latter is, in turn, by reflec-

tion and knowledge, elevated into the

calm regions of ideal or spiritual life, in
which Rishis, and Munis, and Kavis,
sages and saints, prophets and poets
divine, live a life of eternal labour in
unbroken tranquillity ;
labour “ unhast-
ting, unresting ” —not demiurgic, but
sabbatical, [in that sense in which it is

said “Thefather worketh hitherto ”] .

beyond the isolated Satva quality

Still

is a sphere called the pure Satva which ,

must be considered to denote essentia

pura, pure being, pure truth, pure good-
—
ness viewed as one simple essence.
This seems attained only when all iso-
lation is renounced when, the Satva
; ,

re-entering predominant into the Rajas

and Tamas, and penetrating them with
its influence, all three isolated prismatic
 — ,

48

rays coalesce into pure universal light,

and a consciousness of divine re-union.
Or, as Hippolytus says — if Hippolytus
be the author of the Oxford MSS.
“when man becomes God;” or, as
Alfonso Liguori, therein translating the
Spanish of St. Theresa, expresses it in
his theology \0 ratio Meditationis]
“Anima fit unum quid cum Deo,”
when the plastic, and the emotional,
and the ideal, become absolutely one,
and there is, properly speaking, neither
matter, nor soul, nor but some-
spirit,

thing which is all and yet none of these

— call it Bramh ;
call it the constant
or eternal Life [nitya] ;
call it, if you
will, Hindu trinity in unity
that true
— Sach —
Chid Ananba-Ghana— —
“ Solidarity of Being, Thought, and

Joy,” in which the eternal going-forth

and re-introcession of the One, is ex-
pressed in the most perfect harmony
 — —

49

with the deepest speculation of Platon-

ism, and still more so with the pro-
foundest development of Johannic
Christianity.
Sat absolute self-existing Being
develops in itself self-consciousness
[Ahankara] ;
instinctive Being or Life
becomes Chit, i.e., Thought, or
Reason reflecting on itsown nature
the internal Word or Logos, which
says, “I am Bramh or the Self-exis-

tent.”From the self-conscious Thought

contemplating its own eternal Being,
from the eternal Being developing into
perpetual self-consciousness, Thought,
or Reason, an eternal breathing forth
is

of Ananda, Joy, or Love, and these

three are in one Ghana or Solidarity.
Out of the purple or dark Violet has
struggled the Red ;
out of the Red is
breathed the Orange. The movement
of the Orange Joy is three-fold. If,

n
 ,

5°

holding to its root in the Red, it goeth

forth in a circle according to Pravritti
or procession, till it re-enters the pri-
mordial Violet, it produces the glad
Green of universal nature, wherein all
living things rejoice, and on which the
fairies love to dance. If, preferring the
way of Nivritti or retrocession into
itself — it re-enters its fountain, the
Red, and their common fountain the
Violet, all three coalesce, and merge
into pure light —then the Red is subject
unto the Violet, and Light is all in all.

If casting itself off from its fountain

the Red, and not tending towards their
common parent the Violet, it seeks to
stand alone, it becometh, in its proud
isolation, a deadly, venomous yellow,
the colour of serpents, and dragons, and
irredeemable Bramha-Rakshasas.
The Titanic nature is not of this
kind : for though the Tanias nature im-
 51

mensely predominates, it still partakes

largely of the Rajas, and in lesser

measure of the Satva quality. The

problem to be solved in the case of
—
Titanic Ravan and in greater or less
degree of every human soul, in propor-

tion as it partakes of the Titanic nature,

as all in their emerging must some
in

measure — is, how shall the Tamas be

changed into the Satva, or penetrated
—
and ruled by it ? how shall matter re-
ascend and become spirit ? the gross —
darkness and stolid stupidity of the
tree or the animal be illumined into
self-consciousness, reflection, reason,
knowledge ? —the brute self-concentra-
tion be kindled into universal sympathy
—
and love ? the blind instinct and coarse
desires of the Titan, or Titanic man, be
sublimed into the eternal conscious
principles, self-renunciation, and pure
ideality of the divine life ?

<#!

£
 52

This can only be accomplished in one

way, and that way lies through the
Rajas —the life of passion — the life of
suffering. The result of every passion
of our nature, even love, nay, of love
more than of all others, is suffering and
sorrow. The first awakening of uncon-
scious matter into the consciousness of
mere animal life is through physical
pain and the process is carried still
;

further by the mental suffering which is

the very nature of the soul’s emotional
life.

Through the anguish of the fire alone

can the black coal of the mine become
transmuted into light. And so the
sorrow and anguish, which result in-
inevitably from the passions in the
Rajas or emotional
,
life, constitute the
purifying fire designed to purge away
the dross of our Titanic nature, and
transmute it into the pure Satva, where
 ;

53

purity, goodness, and truth are pre-

dominant. Brute appetite and blind
impulse are first superseded by passion
and passion working, through sorrow
and the reflexion and sympathy which
sorrow begets, its own extinction, finally
merges in and is swallowed up in love

and absolute resignation. This philo-

sophy seems to rest on a basis of un-
questionable truth. For, understood in
all its depth, it is identical, in ultimate
results, with the way of the Cross.
Upon this psychological basis the
Chorus offers consolation to Mandodari.
She is the complement of the Tamas
quality in Ravan’s nature. The Tamas
too partakes of good it contains within :

itself potentially both the Rajas and the

Satva, which only require to be evolved

from it : nay, it is the necessary basis
or Adhishtan, without which they could
have no place. Like the black flint of
 ;

54

the desert, it is cold, dark, insensible,,

motionless ;
but within it is the move-
ment, the fire, and the anguish of the

Rajas, and the light and joy of the

Satva. And in proportion to the large
basis of the Tanias quality is the in-
tensity and power of that Rajas fire and
movement can evolve:
Satva light, which
a view in remarkable harmony with the
conclusions of modern phrenology
where it is found that, for heroic great-
ness and energy of character, no de-
velopment of the moral and intellectual
organs, however favourable, is sufficient,
without a powerful basis in the organs
of destructiveness, combativeness, and
the other animal or Tanias energies of
man. The Tamas, in a word, to repeat
a former illustration, is the coal, with-
out which there is no fire, no steam, no
light. The Tamas portion, therefore,
of our being, for its normal development,
 55

requires its appropriate guardianship of

love ;
for in the very lowest spheres of
and even the
existence, in the plastic
seemingly, but only seemingly, dead
atomic region, love is ever manifest in
some and there cognisable
cognate
form and is the worker and preserver
;

of existence there. So long as the

Tanias or Titanic nature is predominant
in Ravan, whether that be for a whole
life, or only a portion of it, Mandodari

is his necessary and tutelary co-ordinate,

for she has the Tamas, or dark plastic

love. Devoid of passion, or heroic sen-
timent —unawakened to the Satva ele-
ment within her, a stranger to the light
of knowledge and ideality —she pos-
sesses the simple, unreflecting, sponta-
neous kindness of nature, the plastic,,

cherishing affection of the negro woman.

In his present stage of development
these are what the Titan needs.
 56

When he comes home from the battle,

she will have a warm cake and smoking
kid ready for his exhausted frame and
craving appetite ;
she will fill his Titanic
goblet with mashaks of fresh mirth-
inspiring wine ;
she will sit and shampoo
his weary limbs as if she were kneading
a loaf; she will perhaps touch her banjo,
and animate his spirits with a wild,
though not unmelodious chant, or sing
him to sleep with some simple, mono-
tonous song ;
and, taking a chawri of
peacock’s feathers, whisk the flies from
his face, till overcome by
she herself is

the drowse, and sinks to sleep by his

side.
But when this stage is passed, when
the influence of appetite and brute im-
pulse is surmounted, and Ravan is ripe
for entering the higher career of true
passion and heroic sentiment, through
which alone he can be fitted for the
 ;

57

still higher sphere of ideal life nourished

by a spiritual love, then a higher nature
must be placed in relation with him a ;

nature which, possessing sufficient power

of beauty to inspire him with love, and
sufficient sympathy with the nobler side
of his own nature to attract his affec-
tions, shall yet present the most rigid
antithesis to that nature, wherever it is

defective and requires elevation or

change. With a purity and gentleness
which shall rebuke his Titanic coarse-
ness and ferocity ;
with an intuitive
sense of right and truth which shall lay
mountains of reasoning low with a word
with a lofty scorn of every divergence or
short-coming, which shall sting him into
an emulating pursuit of absolute, heroic
good ;
with an intelligence which shall
appreciate and stimulate his own, and
a feminine ideality which shall reveal to
him the inferiority of his own grosser
 58

nature, and lead him to know and

worship ideal beauty ;
with a tenderness
which shall sink deeper into his soul
than every other quality, and make
every sorrow or suffering falling upon
her beloved head, and every hiding of
the face of her love, bitter to his soul as
death ;
—out of the anguish to be
wrought in his nature by these complex
emotions, he is destined to emerge,
purified, ennobled and refined, into a
higher nature.
When the time comes that Ravan is

capable of undergoing this process,

Mandodari will be no longer suited for
his companion and partner, no longer
capable of appreciating his nature, or
deriving happiness from an equal com-
panionship with him.
When this period, therefore, arrives,
Mandodari’s task as companion and co-
partner ends ;
but not her offices of
 59

kindness or her relation to Ravan.

Though his Tamas nature shall then be
no longer predominant, and shall only
exist as the basis which affords fuel to

higher emotions, it is not annihilated.

His Tamas, or animal man, will still

require cherishing ;
the more so as he
himself will now be neglectful of it.

Mandodari will still be with him, but

she will have receded into the lower
relation, in which such services can be
most appropriately rendered and, with ;

the same simple tenderness that now

characterises her as the Titan’s wife,
she will minister to him then as an
attendant, and nurse him in his illness
and in sorrow. And this is the destiny
which, as we hinted above, may appear
a humiliating change to most of our fair

readers. But it need not, and ought

not : for there is no violent contrast in
that future destiny to awaken such a
 6o

feeling. United to one in the same

Tamas sphere of life as herself, Mando-
dari in that future birth will become a
mother, and a desolate widow. N eeding
protection, she will find it under the
shadow of Ravan, in his future appear-
ance on earth. She will experience
unvarying kindness and unbounded
trust at his hands, and will return it
with affectionate fidelity. A perfect
sympathy shall establish itself between
—
them not as equals, but befitting their
new relation. A benevolent and gra-
cious kindness on his part respect, —
gratitude, and maternal watchfulness
over his welfare on hers. Ravan will
seal the bond between them by parental
care of her dying son, and she will have
ample scope for repaying love for love
in her own sphere. For, it is not the
least of the consolations awarded to
Mandodari by the Rishis, that the
 ;

6i

beautiful, but pensive and mysterious,

Zingarel, of whose destiny, supplanting,
as it is doomed to do, her own, she
entertains the jealousy natural to her
position, is destined to be, conjointly
with Ravan, one of the chief objects of
her own future affection, and almost
maternal care. She will wait upon, and
gaze on her with wonder, as a being
incomprehensible, whom she might
almost worship, and yet one whom she
cannot help loving as fondly, and as
freely, as if she were her own infant
she will nurse all her children ;
she will
fondle and carry in her arms one
cherished boy when he is snatched
away; and will mourn her Indrajit a
second time in the beloved Floribel.
She will nurse Zingarel herself with a
mother’s tenderness, when her frame
has given way, and her mind has become
clouded ;
and ere her pilgrimage to the
 62

mournful and silent land described in

Ravan’s dream, the last kiss imprinted
by the wan lips of the weeping wanderer,
on leaving the beautiful Isle of Palms,
shall be on the dusky but faithful cheek
of her, within whose body the spirit of
Mandodari shall then be tabernacled.
Nor is this all. Disasters not yet told
by Ravan are gathering in that dream of
futurity and when they occur when —
;

Zingarel is far from Ravan ’tis her

—
faithful and tender spirit — Mandodari’s
— that shall be near him, to soothe, ta
cherish, to console, and to support him,
in the hour of and isolation.
his anguish
At the announcement of such a
destiny, the honest heart of Mandodari
swells, and her eyes kindle and fill with
tears of affectionate joy — forgetful of
self, forgetful of everything but the
happiness of ministering to Ravan ! So
fully does love partake of nobleness, of
 63

divinity, in however humble a sphere of

the universe it is manifested ! And
here some grave questions arise. Why
should not so noble, though simple a
love, merit to Ravan’s own
rise, like

nature, into the Rajas sphere, and be

his future companion, as now, in lieu of

Zingarel ? When Ravan, surmounting

the Rajas sphere, shall ascend to the
Satva, must he have a third partner of
his spirit, and must Zingarel be super-
seded by another, as Mandodari by her?
Does the spirit of the male alone pro-
gress through eternity, and is that of
the female, by whose aid his nature
ascends, bound and stationary for ever ?
If not, if Zingarel progresses into the
Satva ,
why
not Mandodari into the
Rajasl These questions all pass before
the mind of Ravan but he defers;

asking them, he has concluded the

till

relation of his dream. He will then

 64

seek, and receive, a solution of these

mysteries from the Chorus. For the
present, the first Kanda of the Sabha
Parva closes, and the curtain descends
upon the joyful tears of the consoled
Mandodari.
Part II.

TfiE first Kanda closed with the conso-

lation of Mandodari. At the opening
of the second, Ravan resumes the nar-
ration of his dream. It chances that
while he lies asleep, overpowered with
the heat, at the base of an ancient
column or obelisk, on the banks of a
mighty river, Zingarel, who had been
watching at his side, rises, with that
indomitable thirst for knowledge which
distinguishes the sex, to scan more in-
tently the curious characters and hiero-
glyphics, that cover the time-worn
monument. In her tip-toe eagerness to
accomplish this, the clasps, which
 — ;
!

65

fasten Chrystalline on her arm, give

way, and the amulet drops, without her
being sensible of the loss, into the
bosom of Ravan. Fatal loss ! Fatal
female curiosity that occasioned it

The talisman that ensured her safety,

and averted evil, no longer guards her
and misfortune is, for a time, mistress
of her destiny. A dark, terrible object
in the adjacent waters now fixes her at-
tention, by its mass, its wonderful
shape, its strange utterings, and its

motions so indicative of power. Is it

Leviathan, or Behemoth, or one of

those creatures of the gigantic saurian
tribe, that possessed our fenny world
and its waters, before it was yet trodden
by the foot and gladdened by the voice
of man ? The description given of this
great creature of the deep reminds us
of the magnificent picture in Job, of
him who is styled “king over all the
children of pride ” :

E
 ; ! ; : :

66

“ By his neesings a light doth shine ;

And his eyelids are like the eyelids of the

morning.
Out of his mouth go burning lamps
And sparks of fire leap out.
Out of his nostrils goeth smoke,
As out of a seething pot or cauldron.
His breath kindleth coals,
And a flame goeth out of his mouth.”

The great creature advances, seizes,

and carries off Zingarel. Awakened
by her screams, Ravan rushes into the
river to her rescue, and puts forth all
his Titanic strength to arrest the mon-
ster’s course ;
but in vain.

“ The sword of him that layeth at him cannot

hold
The spear, the dart, nor the habergeon.
He esteemeth iron as straw,
And brass as rotten wood.
Darts are counted as stubble
He laugheth at the shaking of a spear.
He maketh the deep to boil like a pot
He maketh the sea like a pot of ointment.
He maketh a path to shine after him
One would think the deep to be hoary.”

And thus, cleaving his path through

 67

the foaming billows of the river, the

amorphous ravisher of Zing&rel makes
for the depths of the ocean ;
whilst she,
borne weeping and reluctant upon his
scaly back, extends her arms to the
shore, calling out in her sense of utter
isolation,

dinam man-dma-vatsala,
kathan-vityajase, raj an, bhitam, asmin, sarij-
jale !

O king, to the wretched so tender,

Poor me, in this river water terrified how canst
thou thus abandon ?

Baffled and stupefied with grief,

Ravan stands in the water, gazing

upon the receding monster, when, smit-
ing his bosom in a sudden movement
of despair, his hand strikes against the
talisman, which till then he had never
noticed. Aware of its importance to
the welfare of Zingarel, and of the
fatal consequences which must result
from its loss, of which he has already
 68

had this terrible sample, he resolves to

make one last, desperate effort ;
and, if

he cannot rescue her from the monster,

at least restore to her possession the
amulet, on which her safety depended,
and through which she might yet escape
the dark fate that seemed impending
over her. He seeks the cave of some
Divars, a species of Eastern Tritons,
and taking off his tenfold, gemmed
tiara, and his heavy collar formed of
the large pearls obtained in the fishery
of Lanka, or Ceylon, tenders them to
the Divars for their aid. The eyes of
the Divars glisten at the sight of the
promised reward, and they eagerly
accept his proposal ;
but all is

nearly lost by the greediness, mutual

envy, and perverseness of the Divars’
wives, who no sooner behold the spark-
ling jewels proffered by Ravan, than
they commence fighting for their pos-
 ;;

69

session, and raise such a horrible

clamour in the cave, that the Divars
beseech Ravan to take his gems away,
as the only mode of restoring peace
among their females. This proposal,
however, brings the latter to their
senses ;
and, sooner than lose the
treasure altogether, they come to the
curious compromise, that the jewels
shall be considered common property
but, that, at every new moon, they, the
Divars’ wives, shall all be weighed, and
the heaviest shall have the first choice
of the jewels for that month ;
the next
heaviest the second choice, and so on
to the end. No sooner has this com-
pact been made, than they all fall to
eating voraciously, in hopes of better-
ing their chance of success ;
and, thus
released, the Divars yoke their sea
chariot, an enormous shell, to a train of
gigantic, red, shrimplike sea-horses
 7o

and, placing Ravan in the seat of

honour, and taking their tridents and
harpoons, proceed rapidly to sea, in
pursuit of the saurian monster.
As soon as they come near enough
to give some hope of accomplishing
their object, Ravan is desirous that
the Divars shall approach the monster
cautiously from behind. But they are
mad with wine, with the excitement of
the pursuit, and with the hope of se-
curing the splendid recompense before
them. They pay no heed, therefore,
to his entreaties, but rush right upon
the creature’s flank, and receive, in

consequence, a stroke from his power-

ful flipper, which crushes two of the
red sea-horses, and nearly sends the
whole equipage, and those within it,
to the bottom. Warned by this cala-
mity, the Divars cut the traces of the
slain horses, and fall back to the rear.
 —

71

But here a violent lash of the monster’s

tail covers them with a deluge of foam,
and creates an abyss in which they are
nearly engulphed. Emerging from
this second danger, they are averted
from further effort, by a warning voice

in the air, and they behold the hoary

form of Lingastya — the ancient Rishi
of the Sea, one of the favourite chil-
dren of Varuna, the Hindu Neptune
who, sitting at a distance in his conch,
with his two green-haired daughters,
cautions them against further approach
to this terrible monster. Ravan is

fain to submit to the voice of Lin-

gastya, whose experience has given
him a prophetic power like that of
Proteus. Taking a last look at Zin-
garel, he beholds her standing on the
back of the giant alligator, with her
arms outstretched towards him and, ;

holding up Chrystalline to her view,

 — —

72

he flings the talisman with all his force

towards her. The little sea-cow, by
some secret sympathy and power on
her own element, guides the flight of
her crystal grotto straight to the hands
of Zingarel, who receives it in her out-
spread scarf, and is filled with joy and
courage at its repossession —with a sad
smile she waves her scarf to Ravan
et “ longum Vale, Vale! ” inquit

Here the good Mandodari is heard to

sigh;and as, according to the etiquette
of all Eastern courts, it is considered of
rigor to re-echo the slightest feelings
and sentiments of royal personages,
the whole of the assembly take up the
sorrowful utterance, and sigh, or feign
to sigh in unison with her. The at-

tempt proves distressing to some of the

old Rishis, and veteran Senapatis, and
ludicrous on the part of others and ;
 73

the effect of the whole is to produce

a very singular and undignified com-
bination of sounds, which interrupt
the Titan’s narrative, and try his pa-
tience for a full quarter of an hour.
Silence and decorum being at length
restored, he proceeds with his tale.
He remained —thus runs his rela-
tion —long in a state of stupid ab-
straction, gazing vacantly on the black
but ever-lessening shadow which the
receding monster interposed between
himself and the setting sun, and scarcely
daring to contemplate in its reality
the great change which had thus fallen
upon his existence. He is at last
roused to a sense of the present by the
Divars, who are anxious to return to
their cavern, not only to claim their
reward, having accomplished at least
one great object of their attempt, the
restoral of the talisman; but also, be-
 74

cause, judging from what they had

seen when setting out, they begin to
entertain serious apprehensions of not
finding any supper left, if they do not
reach home as soon as possible. Ravan
returns to the cavern, and pays the
Divars the promised reward. He
would fain have rested that night
there, but finds it impossible. The
Divars’ wives resolve upon being
weighed immediately, to decide pos-
session till the next new moon. The
Divars, having their appetite sharpened
by their exertions, and the keen air
of the winter sea, insist upon first
having their supper ;
and, pressing
the matter, find their worst forbod-
ings realised. The women have eaten
up everything The result of such a
!

discovery in a Triton’s cave may be

anticipated. The Divars resort to
blows, their wives to that weapon,
 75

which female Tritons, in all times and

places, have ever used with so sharp
and shrill an edge.
In addition to these sources of dis-
turbance, the whole neighbourhood re-
sounds with the cries of thousands of
wild asses, inhabited by the spirits of
men, who, having been cruel to their
animals and servants in a former life,

are now condemned to wander in brute

form, in this desolate region, bearing

the burthens and blows of their hard
taskmasters, the Divars. The variety
of sad tones in which these creatures
cry out to each other through the night
proves that they still retain their human
knowledge and feelings ;
and the effect,

joined to the incessant sound of blows,

and the shrill screaming and invectives
of the Divars’ wives, is so distracting,
that Ravan rushes out of the cavern,
and throwing himself upon the back of
 ;

76

one of the wild asses, plunges into the

deep gloom and silence of the faintly
starlit desert.

All night long rode he through the

dreary waste, amid silence and desola-
tion. As soon as the morning dawned,
and the sun had advanced well up the
sky, he began to be conscious of some
phenomena which he had experienced
once before, on his first entry into the
silent land in company with Zingarel.
He beheld in the distance, in the midst
of this arid and treeless desert, exten-
sive lakes of cool, blue water, studded
with verdant islands, and surrounded by
groves of the most refreshing green.
—
This was the “ mriga-jala” the “deer-
water” or blue mirage, which mocked
the desire, and ever fled at his approach
the illusive water-brook, after which the
weary hart panteth in the wilderness ;

emblem of the desires and hopes of this

 77

false world, which appear so inviting

and beautiful afar off, but which ever
fly the pursuit, and at last vanish, per-
haps when apparently on the point of
being attained, and leave the disap-
pointed soul, which has so long wasted
its divine energies on the vain pursuit,
in bitterness and blank despair!
The second delusion sometimes ac-
companied the first, but was frequently
seen alone. It consisted of an assem-
blage of gorgeous castles, towers and
palaces, rising afar off, in mid-air, or in
the sky, tinted often with all the glorious
hues of sunset, and resembling those in-

effable vistas into eternity, which some

sunsets, and some music alone, present
upon this earth to the soul of the long-
ing gazer, and entranced listener. This
was the “ Gandharva-nagari,” the
“ Gandharva-city,” or assemblage of
fairy palaces, which resulted from the
 78

white mirage, and presented a mourn-

ful emblem and mag-
of those beautiful
nificent castles, which the poor human
soul builds with so much labour in the
air, to vanish in a moment.
The third was the semblance of a
black, wavering vapour, that seemed
ever to flutter before the eyes in the
sunshine, but which you could never
fix by a steady gaze. Ever and anon
it seemed to glimmer black before you,

but, look fixedly, it was gone relax ;

the tension of your gaze, and there it

wavered again. This was the greatest
delusion of the three ;
for it deluded
not the eye merely, but the mind. As
the blue and white mirage, operating in
space, and altering its relations, in-
verted real objects, and produced phan-
tasmal representations of unreal ones ;

so this, operating in, and altering the

relations of time, inverted real events,
 79

and projected illusive phantasms of un-

real ones. Ravan felt himself remem-
bering the events which had happened
to-morrow and looking forward, with
;

expectation, to those which would hap-

pen yesterday. He lived in future
ages. He looked forward to the arrival
of the past. The destruction of the
universe by the sword-shaped comet of
Kalki, the tenth Avatar, was gone by.
Its first production by Brahma — its

successive preservation in three deluges,

by the Fish, the Tortoise, and the Boar
Avatars, were yet to come. Such was
the effect of the “ Kala-Vivarta,” the
“ Black Mirage” or “ Mirage of Time.”
Through delusions he pro-
these
ceeded for two days and nights without
refreshment, or sense of fatigue, deep
sorrow supporting, and being assuaged
by, the prolonged physical exertion.
On the third night, when it was
 ;

8o

towards dawn, and the waning moon

was just going down among the western
sandhills, he observed a singular ap-
pearance upon the eastern mountains,
upon which the last pale glimmer of
*her departing radiance was now pro-
jected. A dark, undulating, broad
shadow came waving over the side of
the mountains, from the summit down-
ward, like that cast by the rapid flitting
of autumn clouds over a field of grass
or corn. But not a cloud was then in
the sky. As the moving shadow ex-
tended into,and darkened the plain, it
looked like a black mantle or sheet
covering the ground for miles, and
moving close to the earth. He paused
in curiosity to watch this phenomenon
and, as it approached and passed the
spot on which he stood, he observed
with astonishment, not unmixed with
terror, that it consisted of an army of
 8i

millions of black wolves proceeding in

marshalled order and dead silence
across the plain, in the direction of the
setting moon. The vision for he —
could not tell whether they were living
creatures, or mere phantasms lasted —
for about half-an-hour, and then gradu-

ally disappeared to the west, leaving a

chill upon his feelings that made him
anxiously long for the morning. Often
did he turn to the east to catch, across
the faint twilight, some glimpse of
orient red heralding the rising sun.
But no ruddy golden glow flushed the
horizon. No sun arose that mournful
day. He lay sleeping in his clouds in
some far off, misty chamber, “ careless
of the voice of the morning.” At last,

when the hour arrived that the day

should have broken, and his light should
have been gladdening the hills, Ravan
beheld, in his stead, a black comet rise
F
 82

in the east, with its nucleus in the

Zenith, and its tail — in which, by some
strange effect of refraction, he saw a
terrificand magnified image of himself,
pointing downwards towards the earth,
looming, in its rise, larger and larger, and
—
nearer and nearer till its distinct out-
line was lost in its immense spread and
proximity, and he was only conscious
of a black tempest —as yet silent, col-
lected, and as it were brooding —ad-
vancing, imperceptibly over the earth.
While upon the meaning
reflecting
of this strange portent, other ominous
signs began to show themselves. A
lurid, coppery glow crept gradually up

the horizon. The wind began to blow

at intervals in low, mournful gusts,
and then suddenly to cease. Flocks
of birds came wheeling and screaming
over his head, and groups of wild dogs,
jackals, and other beasts of the desert,
 83

darted suddenly past, uttering cries

indicative of distress and supernatural

terror. The wild ass on which he
rode at last lay down beneath him,
and buried its nose in the sand ;
and,
finding no effort of his could induce it

to rise, he left itand stag-

to its fate,
gered on alone, dismayed by the ap-
pearances of change and elemental
convulsion that gathered more thickly
around him at every step. At last, a
deep hollow sound, as of roaring waters
in the distance, burst upon his ear, and
hastened his flight. The great blue
river, whose embouchure Zingarel
at
had been borne off, had burst its
bounds to the right while the sea ;

itself, overleaping its barriers to the

south, was advancing to cut off retreat
in that direction. The coppery glow
of the horizon deepened upward into
a dark, inky purple — the low murmur-
 84

ing of the wind gradually swelled to a

roar ;
red and blue flashes of light shot
athwart the gloom, amid sharp crashes
of thunder —and all nature seemed re-

turning again to chaos, darkness, and

whirlwind. Above, blackness, tempest,
red lightning, and waterspout ;
below,
the river and the ocean roaring along,
and covering the earth —the Maha-
Pralaya, or great dissolution of all

things, was at hand, and escape ap-

peared hopeless. In this crisis, Ravan
clambered to the top of an ancient
pyramidical temple of the Goddess
Uma, which stood aban-
or Bhavani,
doned in the desert, and there awaited
his fate. It was time that he did so
'

for the waters now covered the whole

face of the desert, and threatened,

before many hours were past, to sub-
merge even the lofty temple where he
had taken refuge. At this crisis he
 85

discerns a large object looming through

the darkness, and apparently advanc-
ing towards him on the face of the
waters. As it approaches, he perceives
it to have the semblance of a ship ;
and,
to his inexpressible relief, it stops on
arriving opposite the temple. But
there is something mysterious, some-
thing supernatural or spiritual (adhy-
atmika) in this dim, phantasmal ship.
Its outline is nowhere sharp and firm,
but wavy and ragged, like a swaying
cloud ;
it has neither helm nor sails,

and appears to move and to stop at

will. There on
are human figures
board but they appear shadowy, and
;

almost transparent they neither speak ;

nor move, but seem wrapt in Samadhi,

or the profound trance of religious
contemplation. Their attire, too, is

of a fashion now unknown. Still, it

strikes Ravan as not wholly new and, ;
 86

on taxing his memory, he remembers

with astonishment, that he has seen
them all in the religious paintings
which adorn the walls of his eastern
•

palace. Eight of the parties who oc-

cupied the centre, seven surrounding
in a semicircle one apparently greater
than the rest —
wore matted hair
all

coiledup pyramid above the

into a
head, and garments of bark. The
central personage had one arm and
one leg stiffened and shrunk, as if he
had been standing for years, or cen-
turies, in a penitential attitude, which
destroyed their natural functions. In
him Ravan recognised with awe no
less a personage than Satyavrata, or
Manu Vaivasvata (the Hindu Noah) ;

and in his seven attendants, the seven

Rishis, or holy sages, Bhrigu, Marichi,
Atri, Angiras, and
Pulastya, Kratu
Vashista, who are preserved with him
 — ! !!

87

in the ark, in the dissolution of all

things, by the Fish Avatar. This

phantom ship, then, can be no other
than Manu’s Ark and he now com- ;

prehends how it moved without sails

by a rope to
or rudder, being fastened
the horn of the divine fish. But if
this be the ark of Manu, the deluge
must indeed be once more upon the
earth What, then, can be the fate of
!

Zingarel ? Lanka too must have been

submerged, and Sita and Rama must
both have perished
Here Mandodari said in a low
voice :

“ Ah ! Ravan, so it was of Sita’s

perishing you thought ! You could not
spare a thought for poor Mandodari
Nor for your sister, the long-nailed
Shurpa-nakha, now slit both of nose and
ears : nor for the dark-eyed Sulochana,
the noble widow of our brave Indrajit
 88

And yet, to my mind, some of us might

be reckoned as worthy of being remem-
bered as she ;
for although she has,
beyond doubt, a beautiful face—which
I should be sorry to disparage —she is,

as compared with some of us, deficient

in majestic roundness of proportion,

and looks rather uncomfortably bare
about the neck.”
“ She is quite scraggy,” said Shurpa-
nakha.
“ She is crooked in the spine,” said

Mahodari.
“ She has the voice of a peacock,”
said Anunasika.
“She has elephant ankles,” said
Panka-magna.
“ She is very proud,” said Ahan-
kara.
“
She is very sly,” said Gupta.
Ravan bit his lips at this interruption,
and the unpleasant turn of the remarks ;
 —“ —

89

and, turning to Sulochana, said with

bitterness
“ Well, Sulochana, you have not
yet spoken. What is your accusation
”
against Sita ?
“ Sita,” replied the noble widow of

Indrajit — Sita is the most beautiful

woman, the truest lady, the most heroic
wife, and the most translucent, child-
like soul that walks the earth. Would
she were my
and would that she
sister,

were sent back with honour to her

husband ” !

This generous tribute from her,

whom Sita’s brother-in-law had made
a widow, drew a spontaneous burst of
applause from the whole assembly, and
gratified Ravan, in spite of the rebuke
to himself contained in the •
closing
wish.
He now resumes his narrative
While gazing with wonder at the
 go

phantom and the motionless sta-

ship,
tues seated upon the deck, he observes
three other figures emerge from the
interior of the vessel. One he knows,
by his rainbow wings and antelope eyes,
to be the beautiful Gandharva Davini.
The second he concludes, from the re-
semblance he bears to his portraits, to
be the compassionate Muni Ke. In
the third, to his astonishment and de-
light, he recognises one of his own
Titan followers, the Rakshas Surang,
whom he thought far away in his own
Lanka. He had no time to speculate
. how these parties, especially the latter,
came to be in the ark of Manu, for the
Rakshas Surang immediately plunged
into the water, and, swimming towards
him, touched his feet respectfully with
his hands,and then, taking him on his
back, bore him safely through the
water, and landed him in the ark.
 9i

Here, the Muni Ke putting his finger

to his lips to enjoin absolute silence,
the three went forward with Ravan,
and sat down apart from the contem-
plating Rishis. The ship now moved
forward again with velocity, and Ravan
could discover by the immense mass of
phosphoric light extending before the
bows, the dim outlines of the Fish that
towed it through the waves. About a
yojana in front rose the golden horn,
round which was fastened the cable
which drew it. On on went the — —
ship through the desolate ocean. In
the monotony of motion, the dead si-
lence, and dreary sameness of view on
every side, Ravan lost all sense of time.
It might be only hours but it seemed
;

to him years, centuries, ages, that they

thus careered through the boundless
waters. At last, the monotony was
broken. A roar was heard in the dis-
tance and they beheld, as it were, a
;

cloudy pillar emerge out of the sea, and

again sink back out of sight.
As the ship approached, the linea-
ment of the thing became dimly dis-
cernible. It resembled in the lower
part a stupendous conch-shell, out of
which emerged what seemed the shell-

dappled neck of a gigantic horse, brist-

ling with a mane of branching corals,

and surmounted by an enormous,
jagged, crustaceous boar’s head, turned
upwards, and armed with a multitude
of tusks, like the barbed weapon of the
sword-fish. At the root of the neck
were two rotating arms, which produced
a whirlpool in the water round, like

those at the head of the Vorticella. It

was no other than Haya-Griva or

“ Horse-neck,” the famous Shanka-
sura, or Shell-demon, who stole the
Vedas out of Brahma’s mouth, when
 •
93

he fell asleep, and hid them in the sea

-

and whom it is one of the purposes of

Vishnu, in the Fish Avatar, to slay, in
order to their recovery. This conflict
is now, therefore, imminent. The
Shell-demon and the Fish are almost
in contact, the former coming up under
the very bows of the ship, in order to
attack the Fish from behind, and keep-
ing nothing but his enormous tusk-
armed head above water. Ravan
rushes forward to catch a nearer glimpse
of the monster ;
and, stooping impru-
dently over, loses his balance, and falls

headlong, encumbered as he is with his

armour, into the open, upturned mouth
of the Shankasura. A moment longer,
and he had been crushed ;
but the
faithful Rakshas Surang, who never
quitted his side, catches his mantle as
he falls, and, though too late to break
the crushing shock of the fall upon the
 94

monster’s barbed tusks, he is enabled

to draw him up in time, and thus save
him from utter destruction. The com-
bat, meantime, twixt Haya-Griva and
the Fish has commenced ;
but Ravan
liesunconscious of its issues. Stunned
by the fall, bruised by his own armour,
and lacerated by the jagged tusks of
the monster, he lies fainting and bleed-
ing in a corner of the ark, till the
benignant Muni Ke approaches, raises
him and stripping him, with the
up,
assistance of the Gandharva Davini, of
his heavy armour, washes his lacerated
breast and arm, and pours down his
lips a draught of Amrita, or celestial elixir
vitae, which preserves his life, but pro-
longs his insensibility.
In one interval of dreamy conscious-
ness, which broke, for a brief period,
this salutary state of lethargy, he heard
the following hymn chanted in the deep
 : 4

95

tones of Satyavrata, or Manu, sur-

named Vaivasvata, the 4
Child of the
Sun

Hymn of Satyavrata in the Ark to Vishnu,

as the Eternal Illuminator, and Supreme
Guru, or Spiritual Director of Souls.

i.

O thou, thro’ whose favour spirits sick with the

moils of the world,
Which hath its roots in self-consciousness dis-
turbed by primordial error,
Here find an asylum, to whom they attain, the
bestower of freedom,
Thou art, Oh Lord, our Guru, our Spiritual
!

Teacher — Supreme.
ii.

This race of men unillumined, bound by their

own past deeds,
From desire of pleasure —
give themselves up to
action, productive of only pain.
He, by whose service man shaketh off this evil
bent of his mind, •

He only may cleave that knot, the heart, He is

our Guru Supreme.

hi.
He, by whose service, as gold thro’ fire, man
casting away his filth,
 ;

96

The darkness —
clouding his spirit resumeth his
native brightness,
Let that inexhaustible one, that Lord, become
our transcendent Teacher of teachers !

IV.

He, the least atom of the ten thousandth part

of whose favour
To man, all other Gods and Teachers, united
together,
Are insufficient to work of themselves, to that
Lord, to thee, for refuge I fly.

v.

As an eyeless man madeleader unto the blind,

Even so to the ignorant man is an unillumined
guide,
Thou the Sun-eye itself, which illuminateth all
eyes,
Art the chosen Guide of us, who seek the way
unto thyself.
VI.

Man teacheth unto man a wisdom that is false,

Whereby he goeth forward to the darkness of
dread perdition
But thou art Wisdom divine itself, inexhaustible
and fruitful,
Whereby man instantly goeth to his own (long
lost) dignity.

VII.

Thou art of all mankind the Friend, and the

loving Lord,
 —

97

The Spirit, the Guide, the Wisdom, the accom-

plishment desired ;

Yet man, ever blind of heart, and enchained by

desire,
Knoweth thee not, tho’ existing within his very
heart.*

VIII.

To thee, the chief and the all-transcending God,

I come for illumination :

Cleave, Lord, asunder, with words, burning as

lamps of truth,
The knots in my heart existing, and thine own
self reveal.

What happens what be-

further —
comes of the Shell demon, the Fish,
the Ark and the Rishis in the dream

* This whole hymn, which is put into the mouth ot

Satyavrata in the account of the deluge given in the

Bhagavata (Skandha, viii. Adhyaya, 24), is a very remark-
able production. It shows that, in the very heart of the
wildest and most apparently childish portions of the
Hindu mythology, there is a deep vital mysticism, and
aspiration after divine union, which could hardly be
fruitless.
The word translated “ mankind ” and “ man ” is Loka ,

which may also be rendered the “world.” This stanza

—
has a very great analogy to these words of John “ In him
was life, and the life was the light of men. That was the
true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
And the light shineth in darkness and the darkness compre-
,

hended it not. He was in the world and the world was

,

made by him, and the world knew him not."

G
 98

he cannot tell. When he recovers his

consciousness in that dreaming world,
he finds himself on the little Isle of
Palms, near Lanka, lying in a chamber
within the castle of the Kamatur
Rakshas, attended by a strange wizard
from the north —surrounded by the
clamorous lamentations of all his wives

—but quietlyand tenderly waited on

by his chief queen, Mandodari.
“ Ah ” said Mandodari, “ it is at
!

such times only that we are appre-

ciated.” Sita would have been of little

use there, I fancy. Amid sunshine and

green trees, gay cavalcades, and brave
plumery —among and music,
chaplets,
and lights, Sita is all in all, and Man-
dodari is forgotten. But in darkness
and sickness among vials and galli-
;

pots, and plasters, and poultices, poor

Mandodari becomes some one once
more.
 — ; — —

99

Here, to the astonishment and horror

of the whole court, a rich deep voice
began to sing, in mocking reply, as it

were, to the observation of Mandodari,

the satirical song of the poet Amrita
Raya upon wives :

Of the money, of the money the woman is the

wife,
And never, ah ! never of the man
i.

As long as he makes money, and enricheth her

with children,
So long she will caress him and be sweet
Of the money, of the money.

n.

If broken down in health, or means, or mad, or

deaf, or crazed,
When she -sees him, the Virago she will play
Of the money, of the money.

hi.

Amrita Raya declareth unto thee,

From personal experience I can vouch,
Of the money, of the money the woman
the wife,
is
And never, ah ! never of the man.
 IOO

This insolent interruption proceeded

from Madhavi, surnamed Pankaja, or,

as the ladies of the court softened it in

their pronunciation, Panza, a title of
honour he had received from Ravan,
in consequence of his fine voice and
rich humour. He was a very short,
stout individual, who held the office,

and enjoyed all the privileges of Vi-

dushaka, or Court Buffo-poet, and
Pasquin. The word Pankaja signifies

etymologically “mud-sprung,” but is

the commonest name of the lotus, or

water-lily, which, as every one conver-
sant with Hindu literature knows, is

applied as an enhancing epithet to

everything in which there is any excel-
lence ;
thus lotus-eyes, lotus-hands, etc.
Madhavi prided himself both on his
honorary surname, and his office at
court and had himself formally an-
;

nounced in all the subordinate circles

 IOI

in Lanka as, “ Madhavi, the Water-

lily, the Court Buffo-poet.”
Happening, however, one day, on his
return from court in the wet season, in
full court costume, to sink so deeply in
the gutter, that he was only able to
extricate himself by laying hold of the
tail of a buffalo that was floundering

out, the witty boys of Lanka changed

the name “Pankaja” into “ Panka-
magna,” or “ stuck-in-the-mud ” and, ;

ever afterwards, when he was seen in

the streets, they would follow him
shouting, “ Madhavi, the stuck-in-the-
mud, the Court Buffo-poet ” —an an-
nouncement which occasioned roars of
laughter, in which the squat buffo him-
self very good-humouredly joined.
“ Madhavi you are a privileged
!

person,” said Mandodari ;

“ no one
heeds anything proceeding from you.
Your fine voice and your wit atone for
 102

a thousand slanders, and, in you, im-

pertinence is termed the freedom of
your office. Were it otherwise, it were
sufficient reply to the scandalous senti-
ments expressed in that song to say,
that it is written by a man : and
before we can receive his testimony, I

should like to know how he behaved to

his own wife.”
“ It is written, moreover,” said
Ravan, soothingly, “ of wives as exist-
ing in the Kali Yuga ;
and is wholly
inapplicable to our excellent partners
of this better age, which has not yet
degenerated so far.”
“ Madhavi Panza,” said the sly
Gupta, the mischievous companion of
Mandodari, “has a good word ready
for every one. After this complimen-
tary opinion of the faithful attachment
of wives, I should like to hear his
panegyric upon friends of his own sex.
 io3

They can hardly fare better at his

hands.”
“ You shall have it,” said the Water-
lily, gaily, “ but mind ! it is the poet
Hara Suta, or as he sometimes calls
himself, Hari Tanaya, who speaks, and
not I. For my part, when I think as
a philosopher, which I always do after
dinner, I discover there are two sides
to every question : two aspects of every
relation in life and good and bad in
;

each. But in my vocation as Vidu-

shaka, I must necessarily prefer that
which is most satirical, most humorous,
and capable of yielding most entertain-
ment. The dream of the king is so
full of sad and grave images, that a

little fun is absolutely necessary to

relieve the painful tension of all our
minds.”
So saying he carolled forth, in his
fine bass voice, Hari Suta’s song on
 —

104

friends, which is not a whit more com-

plimentary than Amrita Raya’s upon
wives
’Tis money, ’tis money that draweth friends,
And never the cord of love.

i.

As long as your person is gilded with wealth,

So long their affection expands.
’Tis money, ’tis money.

ii.

In the hour of your danger, in the day of your

decline,
With clapping hands they publish your dis-
grace.
’Tis money, ’tis money.
hi.
Hari Tanaya, Sirs ! tells you this proof,
In my own person I’ve had experience of the
truth.
’Tis money, ’tis money that draweth
friends,
And never the net of love.

“ To me,” said the earnest and beau-

tiful Sulochana, “ all this levity — at a
time when so many hearts in Lanka
mourn for the fallen brave, when a
 —

crisisseems impending over the fate of

the cit} and the monarchy, and when
r

the king himself is relating a dream of

the most mournful presages seems —
ill-timed and unfeeling. Proceed, dear
Father-in-law! I am impatient to hear
what happened you were restored
after
to consciousness, and found yourself
lying in the Castle of the Kamatur
Rakshas.”
The conclusion of the dream we give
in Ravan’s own words :

Gently Mandodari crept

To the chamber where I lay alone ;

And silent beside my couch she wept,

And you heard but her sob and moan.

Then all at once shrieked out, in one universal

wail,
eighty thousand women that were stand-
The
ing round my bed ;

Their eyes were red with weeping, their cheeks

with watching pale,
They tore their hair dishevelled, and cast
ashes on their head.
 io6

And, smiting their bosoms with force,

They voices shrill and hoarse,
lifted their
And screamed a lament in alternate course,
Like a mourning dirge for the dead.
Lament of the Lanka Women.
Strophe.
Who was wounded King Ravan ?
it

Was it Rama, the Prince of Ayoud,

Or Laxmana, youthful archer proud ?

Was it Pahlavi, Barbar, or Yavan ?

Antistrophe.
’Twas said Shankasur, the Demon-Shell,
I,
. Who move in the sea like a vorticell,
I opened my valve, and in he fell.
’Twas I that wounded King Ravan ;

Not Rama, the Prince of Ayoud,

Not Laxmana, youthful archer proud,
Nor Pahlavi, Barbar, or Yavan.
Strophe.
Who saw the great Titan fall,
Bowing his figure, majestic and tall,
Like tower erect, or fortalice wall,
Smitten down by Astra magical ?
Antistrophe.
’Twas I, said Vaivasvata, Manu —
my Ark
Was rushing along like a hurricane bark ;

I saw the great Titan fall,

Bowing his figure, majestic and tall,
Like tower erect, or fortalic wall,
Smitten down by Astra magical.
 —

107

Strophe.
Who caught the king by his mantle brown,
Ere he went utterly, utterly down ?

Antistrophe.
’Twas I, said the Rakshas Surang,
When his armour sonorous rang
Against Haya-Griva’s adamant jaw,
As into the dread Asura’s maw
He fell with a horrible clang.
I stretched forth my brawny Rakshas arm,
And caught the King by his mantle brown,
Ere he went utterly, utterly down,
And came to more desperate harm.

Strophe.
Who lifted the wounded Ravanup,
And held to his lips the amrita cup ?

Antistrophe.
’Twas I,said the merciful Muni Ke ;

As helpless, and bleeding, and fainting he lay,

I lifted the wounded Titan up,
I held to his lips the amrita cup,
And bade him to drink ere he swooned away.
Strophe.
Who was healed King Ravan ?
it

Was it Shaka, or Pahlavi, Barbar, or Yavan,

Who stanched the bleeding arm,
By medical drug, or magical charm ?
Was it he, the compassionate Muni Ke,
Who lifted the wounded Titan up,
 — — —— —

io8

And held to his lips the amrita cup,

And bade him to drink ere he swooned
away ?
Or was it Gandharva Davini ?
Or the twin physicians of heaven, Ashvini ?

Was it one of the Rishis three,

Who in Manu’s bark still roam the sea ?

Was Moreshvar the wise,

it
The towers of whose hermitage rise
In the forest of Grantha Nagari ?
Was it Vatsa, or Valinshal,
His disciples who dwell in the hermit’s hall,
And learn his lore and alchemy ?

Who was healed King Ravan?

it

Shaka, or Pahlavi, Barbar, or Yavan?

Antistrophe.
’Twas I, said the Pahlavi Muni Bhims,
Thaumaturgos of wounded and broken limbs,
Of legs and of arms, of fingers and toes,
Luxated jaws, and disjointed nose,
Of men, and of peacocks, of women and cows,
Kids, children, and horses, and buffaloes.
’Twas I healed Ravan’s arm,
By amulet tavis, and charm ;

By mantra, and tantra, and drug.

Essence of blood-sucker, ottar of bug ;

By the honey-bag of Brahmar bee,

The leathern wing of the vampire bat,
The pounded ears of mummied cat,
The tailof grey-haired bandicoot
Dug out of his homestead under the root
Of aged Banian tree :

By the claw of lizard, the scorpion’s sting,

 ; — —— ;

iog

The flying fox’s hooked wing

The tarantula’s legs, the centipedes’ feet,
The dust scraped up where seven roads meet,
The small white spider’s gossamer thread,
The little ant-lion’s shovel head,
The spectre grasshopper’s long green legs,
Queen ant’s mandibles, cockatrice eggs,
The parasite gochar, that lives and grows
Fat on the hide of living cows;
The eye of the insect pulled out by crows
From the ears of afflicted buffaloes ;

Scrapings of nilgay’s horns and hoofs,

White ants taken out of mouldering roofs ;

The gekho’s eyelash, the cobra’s fang,

Poppy-juice, majum, hemp, and bhang ;

The down from blushing maiden’s cheek,

The dew from the lip of widow weak,
Who dreading the fire, and running away,
Would not be canonised and mourned
Worshipped first, and after burnt
Upon her immolation day.
The nails of misers that grew old
In hoarding up their cankered gold ;

The saddest tear by woman shed,

For the first grey hair on her poor little head ;

The last black tufts that straggling grow

On whisker side of faded beau ;

Raja’s liver, Brahman’s gall,

Pounding, boiling, stirring all,
In a witch’s cauldron sure,
I accomplished Ravan’s cure.
Not Rishi Ke, nor Gandharva Davini,
Nor the twin physicians of heaven, Ashvini
—
Nor Nala Siddh nor the wandering Muni
 — ! ;

no
Nor Moreshvar, Vatsa, nor Valinshal
’Twas I alone —
apart from all,
I healed King Ravan.

Strophe.
Who was it nursed King Ravan ?
Was it Shurpanakh —
with her basket
nails ?
Or Sulochana sad, with her widow’s sighs,
And streaming tears and sorrowful wails
For Indrajit, and those beautiful eyes,
From which the anchorite, if wise,
And Yogi, in desperation flies,
And Muni turns, and Rishi quails.
Was it female Barbar, or Yavan ?

Antistrophe.
’Twas I, said a dusky form in tears,
For I loved King Ravan these hundred years,
’Twas I, said the Queen Mandodari,
Seated upon my bearskin godari
I nursed King Ravan

—
Not Shurpanakh with her basket nails,
Nor Sulochana sad, with her widow’s sighs,
And streaming tears and sorrowful wails
For Indrajit, and those beautiful eyes,
From which the anchorite, if wise,
And Yogi, in desperation flies,
And Muni turns, and Rishi quails;
Nor female Barbar, nor Yavan.
Chorus of Women.
Hark to the sorrowful cry
That rises o’er ocean, earth, and sky,
From all the immortal races
 ;

Ill

All weep and hide their faces.

The Daityas, Danavas, Asuras.
Pause in their warfare with the Suras,
The Yaksha, the Raksha, the Rakshas,
Calleth in grief to the Brahma-Rakshas,
The Bhutas turn from their banquet foul,
And raise in the charnel a mournful howl.
Rakshani screecheth to Bhutini,
Yakshini waileth to Dakini.
The Pisacha rejects his skull full of blood,
The Naga spreadeth his spectacled hood ;

The Kinnura droops his horse’s head,

The Sidhas on clouds no longer tread ;

The Yakshas their treasure cease to guard,

The Guhyakas keep no longer ward ;

The Gandhava no longer melodious sings,

Or scatters perfume from his Zephyr wings :

The Apsara, that from lake or sea

Like a mist, the morning sun to greet,
Up rising, dances so beauteously,
Suddenly stilleth her twinkling feet.
The sage Vidhyadharas cease to ply
Their magical formula on high ;

The sorrowful Rudras, who ever weep

The Uragas on their breasts that creep
All joined in the terrible cry of grief
That rose from the wounded Titan chief.
Even nature uttered a pitying voice,
For the Titan was a child of her choice,
The very rocks from their hearts of stone
Were heard to shudder and utter a groan;
The trees gave forth a sorrowful moan.
The loving sweet-briar drooped its head,
The violet sad its petal shed;
 2

1 1

The cowslip turned aside and wept,

The moon-flower shut up its leaves and slept.
All the naiads and kelpies in fountain and flood,
All the dryads and fauns in forest and wood,
All the fairies and brownies fell a-sighing and
sobbing
When they heard the disaster of poor King
Ravan !

Here, amid the sobs of Mandodari,

terminates the mysterious dream of
Ravan. Its interpretation commences
in the fourth Kanda. The third, on
which we shall next enter, is devoted
to the Kamatur Rakshas, and the
supernatural weapons.

Part III.

The Kamatur Rakshas and the

Supernatural Weapons.

When Ravan mentioned the name of

the Kamatur Rakshas, a smile full of
meaning passed round the assembly.
Kamatur signifies “ sick with love ” ;

or “ madly in love ” and since his;

 IX 3

hallucination about Sita, the epithet of

Kamatur Rakshas, or “ the love-sick
Titan,” had been stealthily applied to
himself in all the gossiping coteries
that formed round the Court of Lanka.
For then, as now, though subjects
would fight loyally, and die bravely
for their monarch, they would freely
canvass his faults. _
Indeed, the nick-
name was first tauntingly given him
by his own virtuous brother, Bibbi-
shana, who, though most devotedly
attached to his person and his govern-
ment, never ceased to protest against
his injustice in detaining Sita, and to
warn him of the fatal results of perse-
vering in such a course. But there
was another reason for the furtive mer-
riment. Among the auditors of the
dream, standing in his place among the
ancient Senapatis, or military chiefs,
was the genuine Kamatur Rakshas
H
himself, to whom Ravan’s narrative
alluded. He was the oldest friend and
companion of the Titan king, and was
a general favourite at the Rakshas’
court ;
but of so humorous a turn of
mind, and so eccentric in his conduct,
that the mere introduction of a name
so constantly associated with fun, into
a recital so sombre, and almost tragic
in its general character, produced a
contrast of ideas that was too violent
for the gravity of the assembly. The
original name of this Titan was Kopa-
dana, a title indicative of the combina-
tion in his character of anger and
generosity ;
but since he had held the
government of the pearl-fisheries, it had
been changed to Kamatur. For while
exercising this government he had once
entertained for some months, a group
of beautiful Apsaras, those celestial
nymphs that dance like mists upon the
 ;

sunbeams —whose virtue was equal to

their beauty— and became passionately
attached to one of the number, named
Ramaniya,* or the “ Charmer.” His
love, however, was as chivalric as it

was ardent ;
and, not being returned by
the fair object of his passion, except by
a grateful friendship, he limited the ex-
pression of his passion to keeping vigil
at night (in full armour) outside the
tower in which Ramaniya’s chamber
was situated, and driving away all the
Yakshas and Pishachas that infested
the neighbourhood, with the intention
of carrying off the beauty.
One of the remarkable peculiarities

* Ramana a husband, a lover, a

signifies, in Sanscrit,
sporter, player,tumbler. Ramani, a wife, sweetheart,
agreeable woman, female player, dancer from the root
;

ram, to sport. There can be no doubt this is the true

origin of the term Romani, by which the Gypsies desig-
nate both a Gypsy and a husband. Their language, with
a great portion of modern Hindu dialects, contains many
words of pure Sanscrit, such as Shaka (vegetable)
Kashta (wood), &c.
 n6
about the Kamatur Rakshas was his
(apparent) love for the brute creation.
He collected together all the animals
and birds of every description that he
—
could lay his hands on fed them sump-
tuously, erected extensive Pashu-shalas
(the same modern Pinjura-purs,
as the
or animal hospitals of Surat and Bom-
bay) for their accommodation, and
passed a great part of his time in their
company so that he was
;
as well
known and beloved among the deer,
wild boars, sheep, kids, peacocks, he-
rons, doves, &c., as a Buddhist priest
or a Muni living in forest hermitage.
A friar, indeed, of the Buddhist order
actually assisted him in these benefi-

cent ministrations to the animals and

birds ;
but, strange to say, all this at-

tachment was, on his part, wholly de-

ceptive. One after another, he slaugh-
tered and feasted on his favourites, not
 XI 7

only without remorse, but with a cruel

zest that betrayed the latent Titan.
The true solution of the inconsistency
was this : he was a firm believer in
the metempsychosis. But on this gene-
ral doctrine he had engrafted a theory
of his own, that the happiness of the
wandering soul, after each emigration,
depended on its condition (happy or
otherwise) at the moment of making
its exit from one sphere of living being
into another. So that the greatest
possible mercy that could be shown to
any animal was to cut it off when it
was in the full flush of good feeding,
and rolling in clover. The misery in
which old and diseased animals linger
out a wretched existence in the Pinjara-
purs, or animal hospitals, had probably
suggested this theory, and certainly
afforded it no small justification. But
it was found also to harmonise admira-
 ii8

bly with a very proper Titanic relish

forgood fat saddles of gram-fed mutton,
haunches of venison, and boars roasted
whole.
Another peculiarity was his power of
using the “ Mohan-Astra,” and the de-
light which he took in it. The Astras
are, as we may inform our readers, a
kind weapons that one constantly
of
meets in the ancient Hindu legends,,
and which at first are very puzzling.
They sometimes have a palpable shape,
and from their effects in burning the
enemy, etc., we are led to imagine,
that they are nothing but rockets or
shells, and that the ancient Hindus
were well acquainted with the use of
gunpowder. But a further acquain-
tance corrects this idea. We find the
operator folding his arms on the field
of battle, and, by mere inward medi-
tation, despatching the Astra, which is
 :

to arrest or consume the hostile army.

We find such elemental Astras as
“ Wet Thunderbolt,” “ Dry Thunder-
bolt,” “ Rain Astra,” “ Drought
Astra,” “Frost Astra;” such spiritual
Astras as “Fascination,” “Allure-
ment,” “ Maddening,” or “ Intoxica-
tion,” “ Trembling,” “ Panic ”
or ;

such physiological Astras as “ Over-

powering with Sleep,” “ Quieting,”
and “Paralysing; ” and we are forced
ultimately to conclude, that the whole
armoury is spiritual, and is to be in-
terpretedby three analogies in the
European sphere of thought and ex-
—
perience namely, magic, mesmerism,
and the modern electro-biology. We
subjoin here a curious list of these
weapons, taken from the Ramayana.
The manuscripts vary a good deal
even the printed editions of Schlegel
and Gorresio differ somewhat as to the
 — —

120

order, the number, and the names of

the Astras. There is, however, a suffi-
cient agreement, on the whole. Gor-
resio’s edition, the typography of which
is beautiful, but in which the text is,

in general, less carefully and correctly

edited than Schlegel’s, contains the
fuller list of the two. We have con-
structed the subjoined catalogue of the
magical armoury from a comparison of
both :

List of Astras, or Supernatural Weapons,

Delivered by the Sage Vishvamitra to
Rama, for his Combat with the Titans.

RAMAYANA —ADI —KANDA— SARGA XXIX, —ED. SCHLEGEL

XXX. ED. GORRESIO.

The Brahm Astra

‘
;
’
terrible to the three col-
lected worlds.
The Astra, or Discus of ‘ Judgment ;
’
which
causes the extermination of the people.
The Astra, or Discus, of Dharma (nemesis)
like fate itself.
The irresistible Astra, or Discus of Fate.
The ethereal Discus of Vishnu the cruel Discus ;

of Indra.
 121

The ‘Thunderbolt,’ hard to resist; the excel-

lent Trident of Shiva.’
‘

The terrible Brahman’s ‘ Head ;

’
the ‘
arrow-
resembling ’
Astra.
The Brahmanical Astra,’ incomparable; the
‘

Shankar-Astra,’ with flaming mouth.

‘

The two beautiful clubs Modaki and Shikara.

The iron-headed club of Vishnu Kaumodaki. —
The Noose of Law,’ and the Noose of Fate.’
‘ ‘

The most wonderful Noose of Varuna (God ‘ ’

of the water).
The two Thunderbolts of Indra, Dry and Wet. ‘ ’ ‘

The Astra of the Trident-bearer, and the

Narayan-Astra.’
‘

The fiery Astra, called Point,’ and the windy ‘

Astra, called Whirl-about.’ ‘

The Astras Pounding to Atoms,’ Shaking to

‘ ‘

Pieces,’ and Tearing asunder of Enemies.’‘

The Horse’s head’ Astra the Hammer,’ the

‘
;
‘

‘
Heron’s beak.’
The two-powers (or spears), ‘
Not sped in vain,’
and ‘
Victorious.’
The Skeleton Pestle,’ the Bracelet of
terrible ‘ ‘

Skulls,’ and the

Tinkling Waist-Chain of ‘

Rattling Bones,’ worn by the Titans.

The great Astra, called the Delighting of the ‘ ’

Vidhyadharas
(Who ascend to heaven by holding a magical
their mouths).
pill in
The Casting into a deep sleep Astra, the
‘ ’

‘Thoroughly quieting,’ and the ‘Paralysing ’

Astras.
The Solar ‘ ’
Astra, the ‘
Rain,’ and the
‘
Drought ’
Astras.
 122

The ‘
Burning-up ’
and the ‘
Smearing-over
Astras.
The ‘Allurement’ and the Maddening’* Astras, ‘

dear to Cupid.
The cherished Astra of the Gandharvas, called
Mohana,’ or ‘Fascination.’
The Sura Astra, which steals away lustre and
beauty the Blasting of enemies.’
;
‘

The ‘
Paishacha,’ or Devil’s Astra ;
called
‘ Red-flesh-eater.’
The Kubera Astra (for showering gold).
‘ ’

The Rakshas,’ or Titan Astra, which

‘
des-
troyed the fortune, the courage, and life of
one’s foes.
The Fainting
‘
Astra, the Whipping,’ the ’ ‘

Trembling,’ the Drawing along of Enemies.’

‘ ‘

The ‘Diluvial’ Astra, the ‘Whirlpool,’ the

‘ Paviour.’
The ‘
Truth ’
and the Lying Astras the ‘ ’
;

Astra of ‘
Maha-Maya,’ or Great magical ‘

illusion.’
The Heroism Astra the Splendour,’ the
‘ ’
;
‘

‘
Abstraction of other’s splendour.’
The ‘Moon’ and the ‘Frost’ Astras; the
‘
Twashtra,’ or Chaos-demon’ Astra, power- ‘

ful to enemies.
The invincible Smiting Astra the Daitya,’ ‘ ’
;
‘

the Danava Astras.

‘ ’

And the Cold-pointed arrow ‘

the peculiar ;
’

Astra of man.

The purely spiritual nature of these

Or “ Intoxication."
 —

123

weapons, that they are summoned and

embodied by magical incantation, dwell
in the mind alone, and perform their

service by inward volition, or mental

summons, is evident from the following
passage, which succeeds the enumeration
of the Astras :

Then, turning with his face to the east, and

purified, the eminent Muni
Gave unto Rama, well pleased, the incompar-
able assemblage of Astras ;

The apprehension of which is hard to the gods

themselves.
Those Astras, then well pleased, to Rama he
orally delivered,
While the Muni, muttering, repeated the whole
collection of Mantras (or spells),
The Artras appeared in embodied shape, and
stood in attendance upon the Prince.
And all those Astras, rejoicing, to Rama said,
with hands submissively joined,
“ Here we are, most generous Raghava Thy !

—
servants are we command us.”
Rama, accepting them graciously, and touching
them with his hand,*
He thus commanded them all “ Dwell ye —
WITHIN MY MIND ;

And, being remembered, serve me.”

* —
Schlegel renders it “taking them each by the
hand —
” Singulos mamu prehendens.
 124

When, by a mere volition and word

spoken, the professor of biology makes
his victim not only believe that it

freezes, but actually shiver with cold in

the midst of summer, he merely launches
the “Frost Astra” at him from his
mind. When he forces him to take
shelter under the table from the pelting
of the pitiless storm, it is “ Wet
Thunderbolt ” and the “ Rain Astra.”
When he causes him to feel the taste of
wine from a draught of pure water, and
to reeland stagger from its effects, it is
the “ Intoxication Astra.” When he
nails his foot to the floor with a word,
or shuts his eyes so that he cannot open
them, it is the “ Paralysing Astra.”
“ casting into deep sleep,” the
The
“ thoroughly quieting,” and the “ Para-
lysing Astras ” have their co-relatives
in mesmerism, also, to which biology
evidently bears some relation.
 125

In the “burning,” “whipping,”

“pounding to atoms,” “shaking to
pieces,” and other Astras of physical
torture, we are reminded of the plagues
with which the magician, Prospero,
threatens to visit the refractory Caliban,
according to the well-known practice of
his profession. The Astras of “ allure-
ment,” “ fascination,” “ bewitching,”
“ maddening with love,” are amongst
the recognised powers of magic ;
love
itself being, indeed, an admitted magical

and mesmeric power, acting through the

eyes. The power of affecting the brain
through the optic nerve, by fixing the
eye on one point, if luminous so much
the better, to which the biologist resorts,
and which is only another form of Mr.
Braid’s Hypnotising, and of Jacob
Behmen’s looking into the bright tin
dish to bring on ecstasy, has been exer-
cised, time out of mind, by the ecstatic
 126

schools of India : many of the Yogis,

following the advice of Krishna, in the
Gita, and gazing downward on the tips
of their own noses, while others squint
upwards at the corner of their eyebrows.
But this is a very different matter from
the “ fascination ” produced
by two
eyes looking intently and immovably
into other two eyes of a different sex, and
in which the soul itself is affected. U pon
the very natural employment, and the
we
result of this process in love-making,
need not But the modern
dwell.
adoption of this very method to induce
the mesmeric sleep is more curious, and
shows that there is an undoubted rela-

tion, which would be worth while to

it

understand, between magic, mesmerism,

fascination, and love. What renders
the adoption of this mode of mesmerism
by the fascination of the eye more
curious, is, that we find this also
 127

mentioned as having been practised in

India, more than two thousand years
ago, for the purpose of fascinating and
paralysing a woman ;
and, singular to
say, in order to preserve her from the
counter fascinations of a lover.
A disciple named Vipula, left in

solemn charge of his master’s beautiful

wife, and finding her inclined to give

too great heed to the compliments and
flattery of a celestial visitor, who comes
peacocking in all his plumery during
her husband’s absence from his hermit-
age, mesmerises and paralyses her
powers so completely that she can
neither speak nor move, by looking
steadily into her two eyes. The story
is given in the Mahabharata in the
Anushasana Parva, Adhyaya XL., and
is one of the greatest curiosities in the
whole circle of Hindu literature. What
is not a little singular, although the
 ;

128

method adopted by Vipula, and the

effects produced upon the woman, cor-
respond exactly with those of mesmer-
ism, the theory is quite different, and
peculiarly Hindu. It is this, that the
spirit or intelligence of Vipula forsakes
his own frame, and enters that of the
woman through the eyes and mouth
his own body remaining, as it were,
inanimate the while. Here is the story
— it is only necessary to state that
Shakra is another name for Indra ;
the
Jupiter Pluvius and Tonans of the old
elemental Hindu Pantheon, but a very
secondary deity —a mere angel of thun-
der and rain, in that form of Hinduism
which superseded the Vedic, and has
now reigned, with some modifications,
for nearly three thousand years. He is

as great a rake as Olympian Jove, whose

prototype, indeed, in this respect, he is ;

but is more consistently represented as

 :

129

a beautiful celestial youth —a Giovanni

descended from Swarga. He is the
discomfited lover in the tale.

Vipalci ,
the ascetic Muni mesmerises his Preceptor's
,

Wife (Rue hi), in order to prevent her from giving

heed to the fine speeches of Indr a or Shakra.
,

That Vipula, mighty ascetic, seated near his

Preceptor’s wife,
Fascinated, with all his might, the beautiful
woman seated before him.
With his two eyes upon her two eyes, rays
UNITING WITH RAYS,
Vipula entered her body, even as the wind
p'ervadeth the empty space,
Her sight with his sight, and her mouth
with his mouth (pervading).*
Motionless, then, the Muni remained, like a
shadow vanishing inward :

Then Vipula, taking under his own control the

body of his Preceptor’s wife,
Abode therein, intent upon keeping her safe ;

but SHE WAS NOT AWARE OF HIS PRESENCE.

He guarded her all the time, O King, his Pre-
ceptor remained away ;

Till the mighty of spirit, having accomplished

his sacrifice, home returned.
* These are the very remarkable words of the original

Guru-patnim samasino Vipulaha sa mahatapaha

Upasinam-anindyangim yatharthe samal obhayat.
Netrabhyam netrayorasya, rashnim sanyojya rashmibhihi,
Vivesha Vipulaha kayam-akasham pavanoyatha,
Lakshanam lakshane naiva, vadanam vadanenacha.
I
 ! —

130

Once about then, the Lord of the Devas, as-

suming a body of heavenly form,
Thinking “ now is the time for me,” that
hermitage approached.
Making his beauty beyond compare, and much
to be loved, the lord of mankind,
Becoming most lovely to look upon, entered
that hermitage.
There he beheld that body of Vipula Muni
seated,
Motionless and with fixed eye, as if to a statue
turned
And Ruchi, with beautiful side-long glances,
with rounded form, and bosom replete with
milk,
With eyes like the lotus-leaf and large, and a
face that shone like the moon at its full.

She, as soon as she ooked upon him, desired to

rise up precipitate,
At beauty astonished, and wishing to say to
his
him, “ Who art thou ?”
But the matron desirous of rising up, by
Vipula was restrained;
Bound down, O King of men, she felt unable
to move.
Her the Lord of the Devas addressed, in tender
speech, surpassingly sweet
“ Know me, O purely smiling, the Lord of the
Devas, come hither on thy account,
Suffering anguish from love, the result of my
passion for thee.
That me behold in thy presence O haste the — !

time is passing away.”

 ;

That Shakra, as he addressed her thus, the

Muni Vipula heard
Within the body housed of his master’s wife, he
beheld the Lord of the Devas.
And that unslandered woman, O King, was
UNABLE TO GET UP :

Nor was she able to utter a word, held by

Vipula under control.
The son of Bhrigu, looking within the frame
OF HIS MASTER’S WIFE.
The most luminous sage, abounding in power,
by Yoga, O
sovereign, bound her down;
He fastened down, by the bonds of Yoga, all
HER ORGANS OF SENSE.
The husband of Sachi, seeing her void of
emotion, again
Addressed her abashed, O King, as fascinated
SHE SAT BY POWER OF YOGA.
—
Then she wished to reply to him 44 Come, O
”
come!
But Vipula CHANGED THAT SPEECH OF HIS
master’s wife,
And, 44 Pray, Sir, what is the cause of your
coming ?” This reply,
Adorning her matron purity, went forth from
her moon-like mouth.
But she was abashed, having uttered that
SPEECH WHILE UNDER ANOTHER’S CONTROL ;

And the Shaker of Cities, standing there,

became perplexed exceedingly.
That King of the Devas, O lord of men,
perceiving this her aversion,
The Thousand-eyed One, then giving a glance
with his [inward] celestial eye,
 ! : : : ;

i3 2

Beheld the Muni within her body, visible before

him,
Like an image within a mirror, reflected him
within the body of his Preceptor’s wife
With terrific mortification armed, the Shaker
of Cities beholding,
Then trembled he, Sovereign, greatly alarmed,
and dreading his terrible curse
‘

But, releasing the wife of his ghostly Preceptor,

Vipula, glorious ascetic,
Entering his proper body again, thus spoke to
the terrified Shakra—
“ O thy senses, evil-disposed, sin-
slave of
breathing Shaker of Cities !

Not long will the gods and men continue to

worship thee
What Shakra, hast thou forgotten, is it not
!

fixed in thy mind,

That thou by Gautama wert let go, branded all
over with marks of shame ?
I know thee, the lord of the boyish intellect,
and the spirit uncollected
Fool this woman by me is guarded begone
! —
as thou earnest, mischievous wretch \

Thee let me not, O foolish of spirit, this day

consume with my holy radiance.
Feeling compassion, I do not wish, O Vasava,
to burn thee.
But if the more terrible Lord of Mind, the
Preceptor, see thee sin-devising,
He will this day consume thee utterly with an
anger enkindled eye
And, Shakra, thou oughtest not to act thus
again but shouldest respect the Brahmans.
;
 I 33

He, whom the Scripture calleth ‘ my son and

minister,’ smites with the power of God :

And that thou goest forward [to sin]

for
confiding in this idea, I am immortal.’
‘

Beware and do not despise there is nothing

!

whatever too hard to accomplish by peniten-

tial austerities.”
Shakra, on hearing this speech of Vipula,
mighty in spirit,
Without uttering a single word, abashed,
•

vanished on the spot.

To return, however, from this tale

of fascination to the Astras. Among
the list of these spiritual weapons, one,
it will be observed, is described as pre-
eminently the human Astra, and that
is “ the cold pointed arrow.” This, it

must be confessed, looks very like the

“ cold steel ” which was such a favou-
rite resource with our illustrious coun-
tryman, Lord Gough, and we are al-
most tempted to doubt its spirituality.
But some undoubtedly spiritual are of
a very formidable class. We have the
“Smiting” or “Killing” Astra, like
 *

134

that exercisedby the professors of

black magic the “ Trembling ” Astra,
;

which scattered panic among an enemy

the Astra of “Fainting” or “Insen-
sibility,” which struck the victim
senseless in a moment —the “blasting
of enemies,” some reminiscence or pre-
sentiment of which is expressed in the
language of popular execration among
ourselves.
Then, again, we have a class of gob-
lin Astras, which must have operated

terribly upon the imagination, such as

the Devil’s “ red flesh-eater,”
Astra,
and the Rakshas Astra of “ Kankala-
Mushala,” which Schlegel translates
the “ bone-breaking pestle ” — “ horren-
dum pistillum ossifragum ” —but which
should really be rendered “ Skeleton-
pestle,” which harmonises it com-
pletely with two companions,
its

“ Skull-bracelet ” and “ Tinkling waist-

 135

chain of rattling bones,” such as the

Titans delight to wear.
But there is one spiritual weapon of
a nature more original and more truly
formidable than any power of infliction
which western supernatural art has
hitherto conceived. It is called
“ Dharma-pasha,” which, in harmony
with Schlegel, we render the Noose of
Law !

“ Tunc legis laqueum, fatique laqueum invic-

tum,
Varuni quoque laqueum do tibi celebratissi-
mum.”
The European magician or witch
may scatter blights, plagues, and pains
from his or her fingers’ ends. The
American biologist may subject his
patient to alternate and cold,
heat
drench him him with frost,
in rain, chill
and pelt him with hail and thunder.
It was reserved for the subtle and ori-

ginal genius of Hindu magic to invest

 136

its adept with a power which would

enable him, while sitting at ease in his
own chamber, by a mere effort of his
“ astric ” volition, to involve his enemy
in the terrible “ Noose of Law,” to
make him suffer all the harassing
anxieties and penalties, the delays, the
vexations, the losses, and the tremen-
dous costs of an imaginary suit in
Chancery ! This was the sublime of
magical revenge.
[Are these Astras, after all, we may
ask parenthetically — real, real spiri-

tual powers,which higher orders of

intelligences than man may and do ex-
ercise ? The word Astra is derived
from the root As, to throw or send
forward — it is a spiritual arrow thrown
or dispatched. Is there not in this some
analogy to the messengers or angels of
death, plague, judgment, etc., which we
read of in Scripture ?
 1
37

When we read of the spirit who said,

“ I will be a lying spirit in the mouth
of his prophets,” are we not reminded
of the “Lying” Astra? When the
angels smite the persecutors of Lot,
etc., with blindness and delirium, have
we not a power put forth like the As-
tras of “ senselessness,” and “mad-
ness,” and “ illusion ” ? In that most
sublime image of the angel of the Lord
looking out of the pillar, and troubling
THE HOST OF THE EGYPTIANS, have we
not a supernatural influence darted
against them resembling the Astra of
“ trembling ” or “ panic ” ?

Finally, in the angel of judgment,

before whom the host perished —the
wrath that went forth to destroy, do
we not painfully realise the “ Astra of
judgment, which causes the extermina-
tion of the people ” ? These things
merit grave consideration.]
 j 38

We now return, after a long but not

wholly unnecessary digression, to the
Kamatur Rakshas : —The Astra which,
in this wild tale, he is represented as
exercising, is that of the Gandharvas,
the “ Mohan ” or “ Fascination ” Astra,

and the occasion and mode of his ex-

ercising it are very innocent and amus-
ing. The Kamatur had a favourite
”
story about two giants, called “ Amuk
and “ Tamuk,” which, like other ve-
teran Senapatis, he was very fond of
relating, as he figured in it consider-
ably himself, and he had told it over
and over again so often, that every one
knew it by heart, and was tired of
eternally hearing it. The moment,
therefore, he began with, “ I remem-
ber one day Amuk saying to Tamuk,”
every one, even his old friend Ravan,
who bore more patiently with him than
any one else, made off as fast as pos-
 139

sible. This annoyed the Kamatur ;

for
the story of Amuk and Tamuk had now
grown to be a necessity of his existence.
After thinkingsome time over the mat-
ter, he mounted his grey horse, Wayu-

bhaksha, or Wind-eater, and rode over

to the Rishi Maricha.
Maricha was an ascetic sage that
dwelt in a hermitage in one of the
southern forests, and divided his time
between the three great pursuits of
Hindu transcendental wisdom. The
first, which we may term summarily

self-conquest, consists again of three

branches —Tyaga, or the renunciation
of the world, and abandonment of all

things ;
Vairagya, or the attainment
of passionless indifference and disin-
terestedness, by the silencing of every
passion and desire and Tapa, or
;

heroic self-mortification, by the en-

durance of long-continued, painful
 140

penances. The second, contemplation,

also consists of three stages —Yoga, or C 'C
the re-uniting of the scattered spirit
by rigid and withdraw-
self-restraint,

ing it from the windows of the senses

•which look upon the external world';
Samadhi, the mystic inward trance, or
wakening into the spiritual world, which
is the result of this prolonged self-con- ,

centration ;
and Dnyana, gnosis, intui-/v*u*i/'
tive knowledge, or clairvoyance, the
original condition of the spirit, the re-
storation of which is the fruit of the
previous discipline.
The third, Siddhi, or thaumaturgic
power, is said to consist of eight
branches ;
but the different enumera-
tions of these, even omitting all the
purely mental ones, such as satis-

faction of mind, freedom from de-

sire, freedom from grief, etc., and
those physical ones which are negative,
 —

such as exemption from disease, pain,

heat, cold, the influence of the elements,
etc., raise the positive ’

thaumaturgic
powers to, at least, thirteen, as may be
seen in the following

LIST OF THE SIDDHIS, OR SUPERNATURAL

POWERS.

Self-nutrition , — Or the power of instant and

spontaneous evolution of the juices, produc-
ing nutrition and healthy life without external
nutriment.
Rest, —
The power of reposing anywhere, at any
time, and under any conditions.
Equality , —
The power of enjoying a tranquil
sameness of condition, and life under all cir-
cumstances.
Minuteness . —
Or the power of reducing one’s self
to the smallness of an atom so as to be in- ;

visible, and penetrate solid bodies.

Magnitude . —
Or the power of illimitable self-
extension, so as to be able to touch the moon
and stars with your finger.
Buoyancy . —
Or the power of divesting yourself
of all gravity, so as to walk on the waters,
and rise to the clouds.
Gravity . —
Or the power of increasing your
weight infinitely, so as to be immovable to
any power of traction.
 142

Rapidity . —
Or the power of being in any spot in
an instant of time, by mere volition.
Acquisition .—
Or the power of obtaining all that
one desires.
Metamorphosis. Or the power of assuming any
shape at will.
Subjection . —
Or the power of swaying, and hold-
ing in subjection the will of others.
Fiat . —
Or irresistible will.
Lordship . —
Or supremacy and the luminous
radiance of celestials.

Maricha was already master of all

these, except the three last. He was in
appearance a Panjara or Cage, i.e., a
mere skeleton, in food a Wayubhaksha,
or Windeater, in power a Khe-chara, or
Sky-goer. With all his eminent quali-
ties he was timid and scrupulous in

religious matters, and his better judg-

ment often yielded to his spiritual fears.
Thus, when Ravan first resolved to
carry oft Sita, he visited Maricha, and
asked him to assume the form of a
beautiful deer, and lure Rama and
Lakshmana far from the hermitage
 1 43

where she abode. He at first refused,

but on Ravan threatening to kill him,
he complied, and thus became the ac-
complice ot his crime; not, however,
from the earthly fear of death, but upon
this somewhat selfish calculation of
and loss.
spiritual profit
“If, assuming the shape of a golden
deer, I am shot by an arrow from the
bow of the divine Rama I shall attain
instant emancipation ;
shall transcend
for ever this sea of phenomenal illusion,
and never again return to the wretched
sphere of birth and death. If, on the

other hand, I meet death at the sinful

hands of this Titan, my future comings
and goings, my births and deaths into
and out of this illusive world, may be
infinite. I can never hope for escape

from the ocean of Maya.”

He, according, obeyed the behests of
the Titan ;
and, becoming a deer
HA
before Rama and Lakshmana, lured
them far from the bower which sheltered
Sita, and thus became an accessory in
carrying her off.

The Kamatur Rakshas knew both

the thaumaturgic powers and the
timorous character of the Rishi. He
endeavoured, at first, to prevail upon
him, by the most respectful entreaties,
and every blandishment of which he
was master, to grant him the Mohan
Astra or Gandharva’s power of fascina-
tion. The good Rishi, however, know-
ing to what evil purposes this power
could be abused, especially in Titanic
hands, was deaf alike to his entreaties,
and his caresses. The
his flatteries,
Kamatur Rakshas saw there was no
hope but from his religious scruples.
He ordered the Buddhist friar before

mentioned, who was in constant atten-

dance upon him, to assemble in a green

 *45

enclosure in front of the Rishi’s her-

mitage, the whole of his splendid
menagerie.
First came the wilder tribe —the
black boars, fresh from the jungle, and
still half wild —whetting their tusks
against the trees ;
the large black-coated
bears from the hills, muzzled and whin-
ing ;
royal tigers, spotted chitas, small
black lions from Kattiwar, hyenas and
large red wolves ;
all chained and
guarded.
Next came the gentler races —the
elephants, with their majestic tread,
blowing clouds of fine dust from their
trunks over their backs, to drive away
the insects ;
the leisurely, long-striding
camels, with their noiseless footsteps,
and their heads, expressive at once of
weary endurance, and an inclination
towards revenge ;
graceful, slender
coursers from the Yavan lands, beyond
K
 ;

146

the seas ;
others of smaller size and still

slenderer make, with silken skins, and

beautifully spotted, from the regions of
Achin ;
little horses from Nepaul, not
larger than a shepherd’s dog; square
barrel-built ponies from Pegu ;
stout
tunnuks from Western Ghauts
the
vicious tatoos, red, grey and piebald,
from the Dakshina the homely cows,
;

the friends of man, with their moist

noses and odoriferous breath the ;

heavy, lazy, slate-blue, mud-loving

buffaloes, with their long, low, pro-
truded heads, wide-spreading horns,
and wild-looking eyes ;
the nilgays, or,
as the name implies, blue cows half- —
cow, half-deer ;
the sambhars, or Indian
elks; crowds of speckled deer— some
varieties with boar’s tusks ;
white or
spotted kids, with pendants under their
throats like the drops of an earring,
making impossible jumps sideways;
 H7
brown mungooses with bushy tails,
their
enemies of the serpent race jambuks, ;

shrigals, jackals, vranjari, paria, and

other varieties of dogs ;
flying squirrels,
and black monkeys with white faces,
from the sandal-wood mountains of
Malabar; grey bonkas and black chapas
from one only spot in the Isle of Palms;
and striped squirrels, called chanis,
that love to sport on the banyan-tree.
With these flocked many varieties of
birds —screaming cranes and herons ;

tall, stalking, stupid adjutants; white

paddy birds, contemplating the growing
rice crops as if they were intent on
making a Jamabandi, or revenue settle-
ment high-crested cockatoos, scream-
;

ing like angry old women ;

peacocks
trumpeting and waving their trains of
green and gold to the rumble of the
thunder-clouds; speckled guinea fowls,
with white and scarlet tippets, ever pur-
 148

suing each other, singly or in groups

'
;

turtle doves, with their low ringing co-

60, bringing reminiscences of solitude

and far-away valleys screeching parrots,
;

with blue or crimson rings round their

green or greyish necks ;
and lories, with
every colour of the rainbow — of all the
feathered race the most splendid in the
hues of their plumage, and of all the
most affectionate fitly selected, there-
;

fore, to carry Kandarpa, the deity of

love.
When Maricha beheld this splendid
.collection of animals and birds, he ima-
gined the Kamatur Rakshas designed
to make a last trial of his virtue, by
offering it to him as a propitiatory gift,

and steeled himself, accordingly, for

further resistance. No sooner, however,
had all the animals entered the enclo-
sure, than the Rakshas closed the gate ;

and taking his bow in his hands, and

 ,

i
49

emptying out upon the ground before

him all the arrows in his two quivers
(for the warriors of ancient Ind carried

generally two, one behind each shoulder)

he threatened Maricha, that, unless he
delivered to him the Mohan Astra, he
would instantly commence slaughtering
all the creatures before him, and the

guilt of their blood would lie upon his,

the Rishi’s head. This blow, unexpected
as it was terrible, was irresistible to
the humane and scrupulous Rishi. He
laid his hand beseechingly on the arm
of the Kamatur Rakshas, entreated
him to forbear his bloody purpose,and
yielded to a request thus cruelly en-
forced ;
stipulating only for a pro-
mise, that he would never employ the
Astra for the destruction of life, the
subversion of right, or the injury of
innocence : this he gave without hesi-
tation. The animals and birds were
then sent back to the park of the Ka-
matur Rakshas, under the care of the
Buddhist friar, who had been as much
frightened as Maricha and the Rishi,
;

leading the Rakshas into a deep woody

recess at the back of his hermitage,
began delivering to him, with all so-
lemnity of form, the coveted Mohan
Astra.
First he taught him the T antra, the
magical formula of act ;
this was two-
fold. The first branch consisted in
throwing some leaves of the Asclepias
Gigantea on a chafing-dish filled with
live embers, till the fumes rose in a
white cloud above their heads. The
second, in pouring from a small vial
some “ Sankalp-odaka ” i.e., Aqua —
mirabilis, or water of magical volition
—with which the thaumaturgic operator
must sprinkle both himself and the
party to be fascinated.
 !! ! ! ! !

Next he delivered to him the Mantra,

or magical formula of word ;
in other

words, the incantation or spell.

Telling the Kamatur Rakshas to re-

peat after him carefully, the Rishi
turned with his face to the east, and
slowly pronounced

The Mantra ,
or Spell of the Mohan Astra .

Hram ! Hram ! Hrim ! Hraum !

Kling
Yushmabhihi Mohanam bhavatu
Glaum
San-Mohanam bhavatu
Spheng
Pari-Mohanam bhavatu ;

Sphing !

Kshrang kshrang kshring

! ! ! kshrung !

Kshreng! kshraing kshrong ! ! kshraung !

Svaha ?
El! PHNPHJ
Phat!

Of this formidable incantation, the

third, fifth, and seventh lines contained
the command, “ Be ye fascinated,”
varied slightly at each repetition. The
 ;

152

short syllables in m and ng, were irre-

sistible adjurations to the Devatas,

or Astric powers invoked. But the
“ Kila,” or “ bolt,” of the which spell,

clenched it, and upon which its whole

force depended, was the difficult and
mysterious formula in black letter
and, while all the rest might be uttered
mentally, this must be pronounced
aloud.
The Kamatur Rakshas succeeded
very well in pronouncing the rest
all

but when he came to the “ Bolt,” he

could not manage it at all, declaring
emphatically to Maricha, that nothing
but a sneezing camel could utter such
a sound. Maricha was nonplussed
for a moment ;
but, reflecting a little,

he went to a bottle-bird’s nest that

hung from a tree adjoining the hermi-
tage, and took out of it a little crystal
casket called “ Gogalgai,” containing
 1
53

grains of a light, silvery powder, vary-

ing in bulk from the size of a cummin
seed to that of a was
marble ;
this
“ Kalabhasma,” or magical Time-pow-
der. was composed of an equal
It

quantity of condensed consciousness

and duration, and its effect, when ex-
ploded, was to expand in time, and
occupy as large a portion thereof as
was originally condensed in the grain ;

so that the act, word, or thought, pro-

ceeding when the explosion took place,
though really occupying only a minute,
seemed to him under whose nose the
Time-powder was exploded, to endure
a .whole day, month, or year —nay, a
whole lifetime, century, or age, accord-
ing to the mass of the powder exploded.
Maricha, putting a cat’s-eye ring on
his finger, threw one of the smallest
grains upon the chafing-dish in front
of the Kamatur Rakshas, at the same
 *54

moment pouring from his Arghya, or

ablution-vase, some water upon his
bare head. The cat’s-eye ring prevented
the Rishi himself from being affected
by the explosion, which was perfectly
noiseless but the effect upon the
;

Rakshas was, to make him experience

a three day’s drenching of rain, which
brought on a severe cold in the head,
and set him sneezing violently, in the
course of which he came to pronounce
the important “ Ei-phnphj ” with per-
fect ease, and thus became master of
the Mantra, and consequently of the
Mohan Astra. He now took leave of
Maricha in high spirits ;
but, before
doing so, took an opportunity, while
the Rishi’s back was turned for a
moment, to dip his fingers into the
crystal casket, and purloin one of the
largest grains of Time-powder it con-
tained. As, however, no evil act ever
 155

goes without retribution in the long

run, he forgot all about the cat’s-eye
ring, which was necessary to the safe
use of the magical powder and thus ;

his ungrateful theft, though proceeding

only from his predominant love of fun,
was eventually punished.
As soon as he got home, he made
instant preparations for a grand enter-
tainment, to which he invited Ravan,
his brother, Bibhishana, and all the
grandees of the Titan court ;
and for
this feast he caused to be slaughtered
many of those very animals and birds
whom the Rishi vainly imagined to
have saved by conceding the Mohan
Astra. So rarely does weak compli -
ance, even with a good purpose, pro-
duce the intended result ! As soon as
the banquet had been concluded, and
wine began to unlock the tongues of
the assembly, and inspire each guest
 ;

with a desire of telling some tale in

which he himself was, of course, the
hero, — the Kamatur Rakshas, who had
his Buddhist friar in attendance be-
hind him, with the chafing-dish, As-
clepias leaves, and a vial of the San-
.

kalp-odaka, or aqua mirabilis all in ,

readiness, took the opportunity of a

break in the general conversation
and, fixing a steady eye, full of wicked
meaning, upon Ravan, began, as it

were, quite carelessly: “That reminds

me, by the way, of what once happened
to me in the my uncle, Sarva-
time of
Varta. I remember Amuk coming up
one day into the eastern sky chambers,
and saying to Tamuk ” the moment —
these fatal names were heard, a look of
meaning passed round the circle of
guests and Ravan, catching the eyes
;

of the principal chiefs —

as in modern
days the lady of the house telegraphs
 157

her fair guests, when about to rise and

retire —
got up from the seat of honour,
his example being followed by all pre-
sent, and said with grave courtesy,
“ Farewell, brave Kamatur — it is now
late, and we all need rest for there ;

will be hard work with Hanuman and

his monkeys to-morrow.”

Before the King had finished these
words, the Kamatur had mentally
pronounced all the incantation but the
“ bolt ” the white cloud of the ascle-
:

pias leaf was curling over their heads ;

and the Kamatur, signalling to his friar

to pour out the aqua mirabilis, sprin-
kled himself and the assembled guests,
and finally uttered aloud the formid-
able “ ei-phnphj !
”
Ravan and his
friends thought the Kamatur had mere-
ly got a fit of sneezing, and were going
off under cover of the lucky diversion,
as they thought it. But they were
 ;

soon undeceived. From the moment

that potent word was uttered, the
spell took effect. None of them could
stir hand, foot, or tongue. They could
not even resume their seats but each ;

was transfixed and compelled to remain,

like a silent statue, in the very attitude
in which he had been surprised ;
while
the Kamatur, glorying in this attain-
ment of his long-deferred revenge,
drew his seat coolly, so as to face them
all at and then fixing his
his ease,
glittering eye upon them like that —
other “ Ancient Mariner ” began the —
off-told tale of Amuk and Tamuk
and went on with a cruel deliberation,
mocking the moral torture they were
enduring, and prolonging their misery
by occasional pauses. When he saw
their rigid attention begin to slacken,
or any symptom of the force of the
spell wearing out, he renewed its force
 159

by casting fresh leaves upon the chafing-

dish, and sprinkling the assembly anew
with the miraculous water. Thus kept
he them enchained till sunrise ;
and in
addition to the physical pain of being
retained so long in one attitude, their
ears and minds were pounded inces-
santly through that long and woeful
night, by the ever-recurring names of
—
Amuk and Tamuk what they thought,
and said, and did to each other. This
purgatory was sufficient. He did not,
on this occasion, resort to the Time-
powder, not wishing to exhaust all his
resources at once. But when the sun
was just visible above the eastern hills,

casting a last handful of leaves on the

chafing-dish, and sprinkling them, for
the last time, with the Sankalpodaka,
so as to fix them there some time
longer, he withdrew, with his friar, from
the banquet-hall to his own private
apartments.
 i6o

Resentment was for some days the

predominant feeling on the part of the
Titans, who found themselves released
about an hour after sunrise, and crawled
home, half-dead with fatigue, and stupi-
fied with the torturing iteration of
Amuk and Tamuk. After a few days’
sore feeling, however, they came to
view the whole matter in its true light,

as a. very capital and original piece of

fun ;
and became fonder than ever of
the eccentric planner of such a truly
Titanic joke.
It was agreed, at the same time,
among all, to keep the events of that
night, and the power of the Kamatur,
a profound secret.
All who had suffered on that night
most perfect
listened ever after with the
good breeding, and the most patient
good-nature, to the Kamatur’s eternal
and oft-repeated tales. As sure, how-
 ;

i6i

ever, as he tried them upon parties not

in the secret, he was compelled to
have recourse to the Mohan Astra
and power
every fresh exercise of this
was a new source of diversion to the
Court.
Such was the eccentric Kamatur
Rakshas, in whose castle on the sea-
shore Ravan found himself in his
dream, when he recovered from the in-

sensibility produced by drinking the

Amrita.

PART IV.
Ananta Rishi commences the Symbo-
lic Interpretation of the Dream
— a Hindu Sage’s views of Human
Life — Glimpses of Vedantic
philosophy.

The morning following the night on

which Ravan had concluded the nar-
ration of his dream, rose with that full
flush of orient splendour which is only
L
 1 62

to be witnessed in the East ;

where the
magnificence and grateful coolness of
the hours of sunrise and sunset, and
the pearly lustre of the clear moonlight
nights, come, in accordance with that
remarkable principle of compensation
which pervades all the arrangements
of the universe, to atone for the
dazzling glare, the oppressive heat, and
the listless monotony of the tropical
day.
Long before the first glimmer of the
dawn reddened the tops of the eastern
hills, upon the waters,
or flung a glow
the symptoms of the coming day began
to show themselves. The flying foxes,
or supposed vampire bats, that had
been out all night preying upon the
ripening custard-apples and other fruit
in the orchards round the city, or steal-
ing the toddy or palm wine from the
gourd-vessels in which it was extracted,
as by so many cupping-glasses, from
the incised tops of the palm-trees, now
flocked screeching home to the old
banyan and other trees that surrounded
the tanks and temples of Lanka and;

hanging themselves up in the branches,

by the hooks attached to the extremity
of their leathern wings, with their heads
downward, gave themselves up to an
unmolested sleep for the day.
The long thin earthworms, leaving
their holes, could be seen by the early
traveller crossing all the roads and by-
paths outside the city, all laboriously

winding along in one direction, as if

performing some painful penance, re-

newed daily before the dawn.

Flocks of pigeons, waking up from
their slumber, covered the tops of the
houses and temples, or winged their
flight to the gardens.
Here and there, upon the roof of
 164

house or temple, a peacock might be

seen stalking in his gorgeous beauty,
or heard screaming from his metallic
throat.
The water-carriers, with their bell-

collared bullocks, trudged hastily

through the dusky streets, anxious to
fill their water-skins at the tanks and
fountains of the city ere the sun rose.
The Titan youth galloped out, or
drove their war-chariots to the plains
outside the city wall, to exercise their
steeds, or practise archery ;
while at
every well and tank throughout and
round the city were gathered crowds
of early women, youthful and aged,
withering and blooming, come to fill
their pitchers and mixed with them
;

crowds of Brahmins, young and old,

performing their ablutions without
taking off the garments that cinctured
their waists and descended to their
 ;

ankles, and intent on contemplation

for, as already remarked, the Titanic
court attracted to its neighbourhood

crowds of priests, and devotees, and

holy men, anxious, doubtless, to con-
vert such eminent sinners.
The outposts of the two armies were
now near each other and ;
as the sun
became visible above the hills, deep
rolls of the nagara drum, and a simul-
taneous burst of martial music rose
from either camp to greet its appear-
ance ;
andwas soon followed by the
this
whole auxiliary army of monkeys, who
lay encamped next to the Titan forces,
singing the Bhupali, or morning hymn,
in honour of Rama, and their own en-
terprising leader, Hanuman.

The Chorus of Monkeys Singing the

Bhupali, or Matin Hymn, to Rama.

Rama whole body of an azure hue

in his !

Y ellow ornaments of gold thereon !

 : ; —
*
: ;

There the sparkling of many gems !

There jewels beautifully show !

A yellow tiara cresting a yellow crown :

Yellow saffron on his forehead streaked.

The splendour of yellow earrings ;

Yellow wreaths of wild flowers round his neck.

A garment of yellow silk around his loins
A —
yellow bangle on his ankle worn as a badge
of excellence
The clash of yellow bells therefrom depending :

Yellow armlets tinkle.

A yellow medal beautifies his arm.

A yellow hero’s bracelet on his wrist.
Wearing yellow signet rings
A yellow bow and arrows in his hand.
A yellow pavilion wide outspread ;

Therein a yellow throne.

Rama, Sita, Lakshmana seated thereupon
Dasa their servant sings their attributes.

This note of defiance was answered

by the Rakshas warriors singing, in
* Dasa, which signifies slave or devoted worshipper, is

also the name of the author. The yellow complexion of

this hymn has probably a mystic, as well as pictorial,
sense for Dnyanadeva, in describing the five successive
:

phases of, or stages of transit to, the beatific vision of

spirit, makes the last and central one yellow, thus
“ Red, white, grey, blue, the colour ;

Yellow saffron in the midst.”

 167

return, the Bhupali, or matin hymn in

honour of Krishna, the eighth and
greatest Avatar, who had not yet ap-
peared on earth.
Since the two armies had come into
this close vicinity, the Titan chiefs had
from policy studied to imitate all the
discipline, the regular ordinances, and
the religious observances of the hostile
army, which brought with it to the
south of the peninsula all the institu-
tions of the Aryan or Brahminical
civilisation, and introduced them even
among the auxiliary army of monkeys
whom Sugriva, the king of Monkey-
dom, and Hanuman, his prime minis-
ter, led on to the assistance of Rama.

[In these fighting, debating, and devout

monkeys, we see probably the wild
aboriginal tribes of Southern India,
whom Rama in his march southward
from Oude encountered, won over to
 i68

a state of semi-civilisation, attached to

his person, and engaged in his aid in
Ravan, the giant
his expedition against
monarch of Lanka, or Ceylon. Their
descendants may still be seen in the
Bheels, Colis, and other hill-tribes,

who possess still the wild habits and

agility of their monkey ancestors.]
But as all the songs and hymns in
the invading force were connected with
praise and worship of Rama as the
seventh Avatar of Vishnu, the wily
counsellors of Ravan advised him at
once to counteract the effect of this
religious enthusiasm in favour of Rama,
and to disparage him in the eyes of the

Titans, if not of his own troops, by

celebrating with constant and ostenta-
and worship that greater
tious honours
Avatar, Krishna, who was to succeed
Rama, and surpass him by the totality
of his divinity.
 —

169

The result was, that while the Titans

were fighting against one manifestation
of Vishnu, they were singing hymns
in honour of the other. And never
was Krishna worshipped with so much
ardour by devout men, while upon
earth, as he was, before he was born,
by this generation of Titans [naturally
the enemies of all the celestials] ,
from
pure enmity to Rama.
Hatred, or rather political rivalry,
hath blinded their intellects, and they
perceived not that Rama and Krishna
and Hari, and Narhari, and Vamana
are all but different names of the one
eternal Vishnu, the pervading and im-
manent spirit, who assumes many forms
on earth for the sake of his sincere
worshippers, the extirpation of evil

and Titanic oppression, the mainte-

nance of virtue and religion, and the
protection of cows and Brahmins,
 170

from the eternal Bhagavata, and from

Maricha and his clairvoyant disciples,
who could look with clearness into fu-
turity, and transport themselves at
pleasure into any age and in this— in-

stance made it their special business

to instruct them — they knew all the
predestined events of Krishna’s life,

were familiar with all his words to his

beloved friend and disciple Arjuna;
and with the songs and hymns that in
future ages should be sung in his praise
by his young playfellows the Gopalas,
or herdsmen by the enamoured Gopis,
;

or herdswomen of Gokula, and by

pious men through all succeeding time.
From these they selected, on this oc-
casion, the following Bhupali, or matin
hymn, which his foster-mother Yashoda
in after ages sung to his cradle, and
which to this day is often sung by the
sari-clad maidens and matrons of Hin-
 —

dustan as their morning tribute of de-

votion, after they have darkened their
eyelashes with powder of antimony,
and adorned their hair with a circlet
of white jasmine flowers, or pale yellow
blossoms from the beautiful and fra-

grant champa :

The Chorus of Titans sing the Bhupali, or

Matin Hymn, to Krishna.

Arise arise dear wearer of the wild-flower

! !

garland,
Fondle thy mother’s cheek.
The sun has risen above the orient hills,
The dark night has ended.

I.

The cows for their calves are lowing ;

The birds in the trees are pouring forth their

notes.
At the door thy playfellows stand waiting,
They call for thee oh, Yadu Raja
! !

Arise ! arise ! dear wearer, &c.

II.

Awake thou whose colour is the dark purple of

the thunder-cloud,
 ! ! ; ,

172

My beloved, the delight of my soul

Haste and look at Balirama [thy brother]
Thou abode of the virtues thou brother of the
!

meek
Arise ! arise ! dear wearer, &c.
III.

Arise quickly, my darling,

Full of perfections my ! dark-blue petling
Kanha !

Haste to drink the milk from my bosom,

And bestow on me thy kisses.
Arise ! arise dear wearer, &c.
!

IV.
Hearing his own mother’s voice,
Shri Hari [Krishna] soon awoke ;

He began to suck the breast,

And all were filled with joy.
Arise ! arise ! dear wearer, &c.

V.
They beheld his form full of perfection, and
beautiful,
They saw his brother, Balirama near
Yashoda’s fortune blossomed forth,
Beholding her son the Lord of Life.*
Arise ! arise ! dear wearer, &c.

* In this piece we have many phrases which are con-

stantly applied to Krishna, some in a double sense.

Thus Vanamali, the wearer of the forest garland Megha ;

Shama, the thunder-cloud, dark-blue in colour Yadu Raja ; ,

the Yadu King, or chief of the tribe of that name and ;

Kanha , or Kanhoba, the youth, are common substitutes

 ;

173

As the last echo of this matin hymn

died away, a loud rustle was heard in
the wood skirting the Rakshas outposts,
and a was perceived among the
stir

branches. The Rakshas sentinel ima-

ginning it was an ambuscade of the
monkeys, fired an arrow into the
thicket but to his astonishment and
;

terror, it came back, and glanced close

to his cheek. Thinking it must be a

powerful Yaksha, or treasure-guarding
for his own name. The term A tmarama, soul- delighter,
or soul of the soul, employed in the second line of stanza
ii, besides its ostensible, has a mystic sense, which is

here meant to be insinuated under the affectionate

utterances of Yashoda soul of my soul is in this sense
;

equivalent to “ soul of the universe which lives and

moves in my own soul.” The phrase Saguna also, ren-
dered “Full of Perfection ” in stanzas iii and v, has a
—
double mystic sense viz., the deity manifested with all
perfections, or attributes, as contradistinguished from
that ultimate and inacessible depth of divine being, in
which there is neither form, passion nor attribute [in
this latter point curiously agreeing with some of the
European mystics treated of in the writings of Bossuet]
and which is accordingly distinguished as nirakara ,

without form mrguna, without property or attribute

; ;

and nirvikara, without change or passion. The term

used in the last stanza to signify Lord of Life, Jivana
Suta, also indicates, by an equivoque frequent in these
lyrics, the name of the author.
 174

goblin that inhabited the wood, the

sentinel threw down his bow, and was
about to fly, when a voice called out,
“ It is only Vayu, the king’s messen-
ger.” Ravan has subdued and en-
slaved all the elemental deities, and
compelled them to serve as domestic
servants, in his establishment. Thus
Agni, or Fire, was his cook; Varuna,
the Water Deity, his dhobi, or washer-
man ;
and this Vayu, or Wind, he
made a sort of hamaul. In the morn-
ing he was compelled to sweep the floors
and brush the furniture of the palace
with invisible brooms and brushes and ;

all the day afterwards he either wheeled

about his Vimana, or air-chariot, or

pulled an invisible punka, or large In-
dian fan, to cool him, or ran on errands
and messages through his kingdom and
to his army. Speculation was imme-
diately at work as to the destination
 ! ;

175

or object of Vayu’s present mission:

and the Titan warriors addressed him
in asong which Madhavi Pankaja had
composed, and which was well known
and often chanted in camp.

The Rakshas Warriors’ Invocation of Vayu.

Nought stirreth around,

Yet, hark to that sound
!
;

“ Swoo-oo ” and “ Ai-yu 99

!

Oh, bodiless Vayu

Pause and come hither,
And whisper us whither
Thou speedest along !

Invisible wending,
The heather-tops bending,
Before us thou sweepest,
Behind us thou creepest
By our ears rushing,
O’er our cheeks brushing ;

Gliding by gholefully,
Murmuring dolefully,
Wailing iEolefully,
Dirges of song.
With “ Swoo-oo ” and “ Ai-yu ”!

Oh ! bodiless Vayu,
Pause and come hither,
And whisper us whither
Thou speedest along ?
 176

The Voice of Vayu.

Warriors, stop me not I flee ;

Onthe Rakshas King’s behest

Thither in the glowing west,
Where the eight-fold banyan tree,
Girt with broad and green banana,
Forms a sacred hermitage;
Thence to bring the holy sage,
Ananta Rishi Yajamana.

Following the ^Eolian murmurs of

Vayu, we arrive at the hermitage
called Ashta Vati, or “ The Eight
Banyan Trees.” In point of fact there
was but one parent tree ;
but seven of
the suckers, which it had originally
thrown down to take fresh root in the
earth, had now grown into massive
trunks, sweeping in an irregular octa-
gon round the central stem, and joined
to it and to each other by picturesque
arches, from each of which again de-
scended fresh slender shoots towards
the ground, which some had already
penetrated, and others only approach-
 177

ed, the rudiments of a future still

more massive and extended arcade of

foliage. The descending suckers fell

so thick as to form almost a continu-

ous curtain between the arches, and to
shelter the centre of the retreat ;
and
with the aid of one or two thick groups
of broad-leaved plantain trees judici-
ously planted, and a mass of green
creepers dotted with large trumpet-
shaped white, or small and delicate
scarlet and violet flowers, the sanc-
tuary of the Rishi was complete and
impenetrable to the eye. It stood on
a long high ridge of ground, and oc-
cupied nearly the whole breadth be-
tween two loose stone-walls enclosing
cottages on either side, inhabited by
his friends, admirers, and disciples.
In front, descending by a gradual
slope, spread a vast plain, green with
the growing rice-crops, dotted here
M
 178

and there with solitary clumps of

mango-trees of a century’s growth,
and terminating in groups, and at last
in a dense grove, of feathered palm.
Behind, the ground descended ab-
ruptly into a still lower plain of less
extent, breaking down at no great in-

terval into a deep valley, and in the

distance, one of the more
through
open arches of the banyan-tree, you
could see the blue Antapa mountains,
and glimpses of the sea, flowing in to
fill up the recesses of its dentated base.
Upon the plain between the hermitage
and army had once
the mountain, an
been encamped, and a great battle had
been fought in the valley beyond.
Even now, after nightfall, spectre bat-
talions were sometimes seen to march
along the ground and from the direc-
;

tion of the valley and the sides of the

mountain a strange knocking was often
 179

heard at midnight, which some alleged

was caused by the fishermen in the
creeks repairing their boats, but others
maintained to proceed from the valley
where the remains of the slain war-
riors reposed.

The whole circuit of the hermitage

resounded with the songs and various
cries of many species of birds, the
larger of whom walked boldly up to
the very entrance, while the smaller
built their nests in the leafier branches
of the eight banyan-trees, and twit-
tered all day overhead. A fat cow
lay lazily chewing the cud on one side
of the hermitage ;
a small white mare
grazed quietly in front ;
a tame ga-
zelle, with a garland of flowers round
its neck, galloped playfully about. A
white cockatoo, a blue and scarlet lori,

and two green parroquets, climbed up

the leafy columns and screamed by
 i8o

turns. In this retreat dwelt the Rishi

Ananta, surnamed Yajamana, or as the
court ladies softened it, Ezamana, i.e.,

the sacrifices from his long devotion

to the solemn offerings and stately
ceremonials of religion. He was an
intimate friend of the Rishi Maricha,
and yet totally different from him :

different in the taste which guided his

choice of a retreat, in personal appear-
ance, and in tone of mind.
The hermitage of Maricha was in
the centre of a dense forest, corres-
ponding strictly to the injunctions
given by Krishna to Arjuna regarding

THE yogi’s APPROPRIATE RETREAT.

A
place in which Sadhakas, or practisers of
particular discipline for attaining spiritual and
thaumaturgic perfection, have been in the habit
of dwelling but where the footfall of other
;

men is never heard.

Where trees sweet as amrita, or immortal
 i8i

nectar, to the very roots, crowd thickly to-

gether, ever bearing fruit.
Where, at every footstep, are waters of
surpassing clearness, even without the au-
tumnal season where springs abounding are
;

easy to be found.
Where the broken sunshine falls at intervals,
and yet which is cool with shade where the ;

wind, scarcely moving, softly blows in inter-

mitting airs.
Devoid in general of sound so thick that ;

the beasts of prey penetrate it not no parrot, ;

no humble bee is there (to disturb with its

scream or hum).
Close to the water may dwell swans and a
few flamingoes the kokila also, or black
;

cuckoo, may alight occasionally there.

Peacocks should not abide there constantly ;

but should a few come and go at intervals, let

them, I forbid them not.
Thou art without fail, oh son of Pandu, to
!

seek out and find such a place there let thy ;

profoundly embowered hermitage be, or oratory

dedicated to Shiva.

Maricha again was a skeleton : his

features intersected with millions of
needle-like wrinkles ;
his shrivelled
skin smeared with ashes ;
his beard
reached down to his girdle ;
his head
was covered with a pyramid of coiled
 :

182

up, grizzled, sun-scorched hair ;

and
his garments consisted of shreds of
dingy, tattered bark. Ananta, on the
contrary, though advanced in years,
had a fresh and almost roseate look.
His features, naturally handsome, wore
the impress of a loving as well as a re-
verential nature, and the holy calm of
a spirit at peace crowned their blended
expression of dignity and sweetness.
His beard and head were close shaven
and round the latter were wound with
graceful negligence two or three folds
of unbleached cloth, the end of which
hung down on one side like a veil a ;

streak of fresh sandal unguent marked

his forehead horizontally and his gar-
;

ments were of a snowy whiteness, and

even fine in their texture. Ananta
differed considerably from his friend
Maricha in his spiritual exercises.
Like him, he was a follower of the
 8 ;

1 3

ascetic and contemplative life ;

but the
pursuit of the Siddhis, or miraculous
though he did not absolutely
faculties,
condemn it in others, he utterly avoid-
ed himself, pronouncing it a road
beset with dangers, and often leading
to the profoundest darkness. But
even in the details of the ascetic and
contemplative paths, he was distin-

guished from his fellow Rishi. As far

as the discipline of Vairagya, or utter

conquest over and freedom from pas-
sion, and self-interest of every
desire,
kind, he went fully along with him
and had come to be absolutely devoid
of self. In the doctrine of Tyaga, or
renunciation of all things, he also coin-
cided in the principle, but he ap-
plied it less to the letter, and more to
the spirit and intention. Thus while
Maricha scrupled on account of his vow
of renunciation to wear any clothing
 184

but woven bark, and even renounced

all action itself, Ananta wore fine and
clean cotton garments, without being
attached to or taking any pride in
them ;
and took his part in useful
action without looking to a reward ;

holding with the Gita, sect, xviii., that

<(
He isproperly a Tyagi who is a forsaker of
the fruit of action.”

The practiceTapa, or severe

of
penitential austerities, was carried to
excess by Maricha, who had stood on
his head for a series of years for a ;

similar period upon one leg hung ;

suspended by one toe from a tree, with

his head down, for one decade for ;

another, stood gazing on the sun, so

motionless that, in the rainy season,
the creeping plants grew up around
him, the white ants constructed their
clay galleries all over his body, and the
birds, seeing in him no longer any du-
 —

ality,ceased to fear him, and at last

perched freely upon his head, and built
their nests among the foliage with
which he was entwined. But the most
extraordinary penance he underwent
was carrying for forty years on one
hand, a flower-pot, containing a Tulsi,
or basil plant, sacred to Vishnu. His
nails not being cut, grew out at last
like the claws of a vulture, piercing
the flower-pot, and curling back till

they grew into his flesh ;

so as to lock
the hand, the plant, and the flower-
pot together. While undergoing this
singular penance, he obtained the name
of Tulsi Bava, or the Holy Father
Basil, and upon him the sarcastic Water-
lily composed the following song :

TULSI BAVA THE MAN TREE.

For forty long years, in yon ruinous hut
Dwells a withered ascetic, whose arm is
shrunk,
And devotees flock, to the sacred Muth,
 ; ; ; ;

i86

To kiss the feet of the blossoming monk.

His eyes with weeping are red and ferrety
His sun-scorched hair all matted and carroty
His body is smeared with a pale yellow crust
Of funeral ashes and charnel dust :

He lives upon leaves, and berries and haws,

And doses with opium, his spirit to calm ;

His nails are grown like a vulture’s claws,

And, inward curling, have pierced his palm
On which he supporteth, by night and by day,
—
O torment of wonder for ever, for ever,
!

Sleeping or waking, a flower-pot of clay,

Which he must, living, relinquish never.
Within the red flower-pot a Tulsi is seen,
A blossoming basil, that’s sacred and green
Twixth the growth of his claws and the force of
his vow,
The hand, the vase, and the plant are now
So locked together, hard to scan
’tis
’Twixt the talking shrub and the sprouting man.
If he walk, you behold a moving bower ;

If he speak, ’tis the awful voice of a tree

In springtime you meet with a man in flower,.
And wondering ask, what can it be ?
For forty long years, this penance he’s borne,
Through autumn’s rain and through summer’s
sun,
In age and in feebleness —weary and worn,
And still must bear, till his race is run.
Some live on the summit of pinnacles high,
Some hook themselves up, and swing over a
fire,
Some drop themselves into the Ganges and die.
 ; — ;

i8 7

Some mount, all undaunted, the funeral pyre

But here, in this Cingalese land we see,
Expiation is wrought on a different plan
The sinner grows holy by fettering a tree,
And the innocent shrub is enchained for the
man.
Ananta Rishi, though interiorly a
man of mortified spirit, avoided all

such excesses ;
for he considered them
often to spring from spiritual pride, or
fanatic zeal and he followed the max-
;

ims of the Gita, which says, sect. vi. :

“ TheYogi, or he who energises himself to

recollectand reunite his scattered self by inter-
nal contemplation, is more exalted than the
Tapasvis, those zealots who harass themselves
in performing penances.”

Even in the performance of Yoga,

or the internal contemplation and self-

union, he differed from Maricha. The

latter, following his mystic, thauma-
turgic bent, was full of internal visions
and revelations. Sometimes, according
to the mystic school of Paithana, sitting
cross-legged, meditating at midnight
at the foot of a banyan-tree, with
his two thumbs closing his ears, and
his little fingers pressed upon his eye-
lids, he saw rolling before him gigantic
fiery wheels, masses of serpent shapes,
clusters of brilliant jewels, quadrats of
pearls, lamps blazing without oil, a
white haze melting away into a sea of
glittering moonlight, a solitary fixed
swan-like fiery eye of intense ruddy
glare, and, at length, the splendour of
an internal light more dazzling than
the sun or the whole star-paved court
of heaven. An internal, spontaneous,
unproduced music [anahata] vibrated
on his ear and sometimes a sweet
;

mouth, sometimes a majestic nose,

sometimes a whole face of exquisite
beseeching beauty, would rise out of a
cloud before his inward gnostic eye,
look into his soul, and advance to
embrace him.
 189

At other times, he followed the path

laid down by the more ancient and
profounder school of Alandi, and sought
to attain, and sometimes deemed that
he had attained, the condition of the
illumined Yogi, as described by Krishna
to his friend Arjuna, in the 6th Adhy-
aya of that most mystic of all mystic
books, the Dnyaneshvari.

The Illumined.
When this path is beheld, then thirst and
hunger are forgotten night and day are un-
:

distinguished in this road.

Whether one would set out to the bloom of the

East or come to the chambers of the West,
without moving oh holder of the bow is the
,
! !

travelling in this road ?

In this path, to whatever place one would go,
that town (or locality) one's own self becomes ! how
shall I easily describe this ? Thou thyself shall
experience it.

'T' #
The ways of the tubular vessel (nerves) are
broken ;
the nine-fold property of wind (ner-
vous aether) departs : on which account the
functions of the body no longer exist.
 ;

i go

Then the moon and the sun, or that suppo-

sitionwhich is so imagined, appear but like ;

the wind upon a lamp, in such manner as not

to be laid hold of.
The bud of understanding is dissolved; the
sense of smell no longer remains in the nostrils ;

but, together with the Power, * retires into the

middle chamber.
Then with a discharge from above, the rese-
voir of moon-fluid of immortality (contained in
the brain), leaning over on one side, communi-
cates into the mouth of the Power.
Thereby the tubes (nerves) are filled with
the fluid it penetrates into all the members
:
;

and in every direction the vital breath dissolves

thereinto.
As from the heated crucible all the wax
flows out, and then it remains thoroughly filled
with the molten metal poured in ;

Even so, that lustre (of the immortal moon-

fluid) has become actually moulded into the
shape of the body on the outside it is wrapped
:

up in the folds of the skin.

As, wrapping himself up in a mantle of
clouds, the sun for a while remains and after- ;

wards, casting it off, comes forth arrayed in

light

* This extraordinary Power, who is termed elsewhere

the “ —
World Mother ” the “ Casket of Supreme Spirit,”
— is technically called Kundalini, which may be rendered
serpentine, or annular. Some things related of it would
make one imagine it to be electricity personified.
 : !

Even so, above is this dry shell of the skin,

which, like the husk of grain, of itself falls off.
Afterwards, such is the splendour of the
limbs, that one is perplexed whether it is a
self-existing shaft of Cashmere porphyry, or
shoots that have sprouted up from jewel seed :

Or a body moulded of tints caught from the

glow of evening, or a pillar formed of the
interior light
A vase filled with liquid saffron; or a statue
cast of divine thaumaturgic perfection molten
down. To me beholding, it appears quietism
itself, personified with limbs :

As a painting of divine bliss a sculptured

;

form of the sovereign happiness a grove of

;

trees of joy, erectly standing:

A bud of golden champa or a statue of

;

ambrosia or a many-sprinkled herbary of fresh

:

and tender green.

Or is it the disk of the moon, that, fed by
the damps of autumn, has put forth luminous
beams ? or is it the embodied presence of
Light, that is sitting on yonder seat ?
Such becomes the body, what time the ser-
pentine [or annular] Power drinks the moon
[fluid of immortality descending from the
brain],
then, oh friend, Death dreads the
!

shape of the body.

Then disappears old age, the knots of youth
are cut to pieces, and the lost state of child-
hood REAPPEARS
His age remains the same as before but in ;

other respects he exhibits the strength of child-

 — !

192

hood the greatness of his fortitude is beyond

;

comparison.
As the golden tree at the freshly-sprouting
extremities of its branches puts forth jewel-
buds daily new even so, new and beautiful nails
;

sprout forth (from his fingers and toes).

He gets other teeth also ; but these shine beyond
allmeasure beautiful, as rows of diamonds set
on either side.
Like grainy of tiny rubies, minute perhaps as
atoms, so come forth over the whole body tips
of downy hair.
The palms of the hands and soles of the feet
become like red lotus flowers ;
the eyes grow
inexpressibly clear.
As when, owing to the crammed state of its
interior, the pearls can no longer be held in by
the double shell, then the seam of the pearl
oyster rim bursts open :

So, uncontainable within the clasp of the

eyelids, the sight, expanding, seeks to go out-
ward it is the same, indeed, as before, but is
;

now capable of embracing the heavens.

The body becomes of gold in lustre, but it
has the lightness of the wind for of water and
:

of earth no portion is left.

Then he beholds the things beyond the sea ,
he hears
the language of paradise, he perceives what is passing
in the mind of the ant
He taketh a turn with the wind ;
if he walk,
his footsteps touch not the water ;
for such and
such like conjunctures he attains many super-
natural faculties.
Finally
 193

When the light of the Power disappears,

then the form of the body is lost then he —
becomes hidden to the eyes of the world.
In other respects, indeed, just as before, he
appears with the members of his body but he ;

is cis one formed of the wind !

Or like the (delicate) core of the plantain
tree,standing up divested of its mantle of out-
ward leaves, or as a cloud from which limbs
have sprouted out.
Such becomes his body then he is called
;

Khechara, or Sky-goer this step being at-

;

tained is a wonder among people in the body.

Behold the Sadhaka (the thaumaturgic saint)
departeth but the talk of his footsteps remains
;

behind there in various places invisibility and

;

the other supernatural faculties become ac-

quired.

Ananta, without condemning such

visions, and the [Rosicrucian ?]. pursuit
after such a transfiguration and rejuve-
nescence without expressing disbelief,
or daring to pronounce them to be hal-
lucinations, simply declared that his
own experience had furnished him with
none such. Admitting the infinite pos-

sibilities of the spiritual world and the

internal life, he looked with wonder
N
 194

and respect on Maricha, but contented

himself with the humbler exercise of
fixing the contemplations of his spirit
on the infinite moral beauty and good-
ness of the divine nature, and endea-
vouring, by contemplation, to transform
himself to some likeness of the eternal
love.
Maricha, notwithstanding the natu-
ral timidity of his nature, came down
from the mount of contemplation with
a wild and terrible splendour on his
brow, and a crazed, unearthly expres-
sion, which scared his fellow-men.
Ananta, with a glow of sweetness and
love, that encouraged and drew them
towards him.
Thus Maricha Rishi was a scarecrow
to all : the ladies of the court pro-
nounced him an absolute fright, and
the little children ran from him as from
a goblin. Ananta Rishi, on the other
 195

—
hand or, as he was familiarly termed,
—
“dear Ezamana” was a general fa-
vourite. Respected by the men, re-
vered, trusted, and beloved by the
women, he was absolutely idolised by
the children, of whom he was intensely
fond. He loved, indeed, every tree and
flower he felt a glad sympathy with
;

all living creatures ;

but little children
were his delight —and above all little

girls. Among these he had one espe-

cial named Ghanta Patali,
favourite,
or “Bell Trumpet Tower,” who was
constantly about him. Ravan, on his
return from his failure in the contest
for thehand of King Janaka’s [adopt-
ed] daughter Sita, who was won by
Rama from all competitors by his
breaking the bow of Shiva, which none
of the others could even bend, found
this little girl and her brother Ratna-
kara lying, apparently abandoned,
 ig6

among the beds of pink jhinga flowers

that fringe the straits separating the
island of Lanka from the main land,
across which Rama and the monkeys
afterwards built Rama’s bridge. In
the same neighbourhood may still be
seen a well of fresh water, springing
up in the very midst of the estuary,
and covered at flood tides by the salt
waves. Its site is marked by a crowd

of red and white flags and streamers,

indicating that a local water-goddess
is there worshipped. It is called among
the barbarous fishermen that inhabit
that region Sita-Hrad, or “ Sita’s
Well:” fora tradition prevails there,
that Sita also was found in the neigh-
bourhood, in one of the furrows among
the same jhinga beds. For it is well
known that Sita had no mother, and
was not born in the ordinary way but ;

was found by her reputed parent Ja-

 197

naka in the furrow of a field or garden,

and was thence named Sita, or Furrow-
found, from Sit, a furrow.
What was no less singular, the little

Ghanta Patali exhibited the most re-

markable resemblance in her features

and manner to Sita, which struck Ra-
van more forcibly every day, and at-
tached him very strongly to the child.
He handed over Ratnakara to Maricha
for his education, and Ghanta Patali
to the gentler Ananta but the latter
;

was often sent for, and was a good deal

about the court was made much of
;

by the good Mandodari, whom she al-

ways called her “white mother,” though
she was of a very deep shade of brown,
approaching indeed to black and was ;

treated like a little sister by the affec-

tionate Sulochana, to whom she clung
like a second self. Her innocent, wild,
joyous nature, and a certain innate deli-
 ;

198

cacy and grace that attended every

word and movement, made her the
darling and delight of the whole court
and when Sita was made a captive in
the Ashoka grove, all presents, and all
communications of a kind and cour-
teous intent, were sent to her through
Ghanta Patali, who soon became so
charmed by, and attached to, the
beautiful stranger, whom she herself
so greatly resembled, that the good
Mandodari became almost jealous.
Sita loved her in return, and often
wiled away the sad hours of her cap-
tivityby conversing with the tender,
sweet-faced little orphan girl teaching ;

her to embroider, to string garland

flowers, and to sing to the saramandal,
or Indian Such was the
dulcimer.
pupil of Ananta Rishi. At the moment
of Vayu’s arrival she was sitting up,
very happy, on the roof of one of the
 199

cottages that lay beside the hermitage,

watching with delight the process of
re-roofing. A spotted was lying
cat
flat and obedient to her beck on a little

wooden car beside her, and a white

kid, with green ribbons round his neck,
was playfully butting against her
shoulder. But her head was just then
turned aside, and her attention direct-
ed to a tree, in which she had hung up
the Rishi’s vina, or lyre, to catch on
its strings the sweet and wild vibra-

tions of the wind, which almost mad-

dened her with delight. Just at this
moment it had begun to utter an un-
usually loud, screaming wail, which
she had heard before, and which she
knew announced the arrival of Vayu,
r

or Wind, himself.
Concluding rightly from this, that
the Rishi had been summoned to court,
whither she always accompanied him,
 200

she descended hastily from her high

eyry, and ran joyfully into the hermi-
tage, followed by her two favourites,
who came galloping after her.
The summons of the King delivered,
the Rishi,accompanied by Ghanta
Vimana, or
Patali, took his seat in the
aerial chariot, which gods, demi-gods,
and divine sages always have in atten-
dance. That of Ananta was in shape
like a large shell of the paper nautilus,
resembling an antique barge rather
than the chariots used for war. It

was composed entirely of the fragrant

grass called dharba ,
or kas-kas, neatly
plaited together, bound by fillets of
red wool, and spangled all over with
the green and glittering wings of the
Deccan beetle and large firefly, which
sparkled like emeralds against the pale
dull yellow of the grass ;
and all round
it was edged with a fringe formed of
 201

the ends of peacocks’ feathers, giving

it at once richness and buoyancy.
As soon as they were seated, the in-
Vayu recommenced his loud,
visible
humming murmur. The car rose in
the air lightly ;
the tops of the trees
bent before it ;
and after a short and
pleasant excursion through the air,

they alighted at the palace of Ravan.

A group of female slaves was in atten-
dance to receive Ghanta Patali, and
carry her off to the chamber of Man-
dodari. Ananta was greeted respect-
fully by a crowd of learned and religious

men, and conducted immediately to

the council-chamber, where he found
the Rishis in deep consultation, and
exchanging troubled glances with each
other. The imperious injunction of
the Titan to interpret the dream had
thrown them all into consternation, for
all agreed that it foreshadowed great
 202

which
disaster, it might be perilous to
communicate. The majority consi-
dered that it foreboded no less than
the death of Ravan, and the fall of
Lanka. Maricha, however, who sat
on the ground, throwing ever and anon
a handful of cowrie shells on the pave-
ment, and observing carefully the num-
ber that fell with the mouths upward,
and the number in which the mouths
were down, as well as the order which
they assumed in their fall, shook his
head mysteriously, and asserted that,
although these disasters were certainly
written in the future, they did not
form, but preceded, the real interpre-
tation ;
that the precise misfortunes
indicated in the dream related to a far
future state of existence, in which Ra-
van would probably not believe. The
council of sages was not only divided
on this point, but felt that, whichever
 203

interpretation they should agree to

adopt, it would be equally hazardous
to deliver it boldly to the Titan, since
each must point, directly or indirectly,
to his own destruction. In this dilem-
ma they sought counsel of Ananta.
“ Sages,” replied Ananta, with mo-
desty, after listening patiently to their
appeal, “ since the recital of the dream
by the King, I have meditated pro-
foundly upon its signification ;
and
seeking, according to my wont, not for
the occasional individual application of
its symbols, but for their universal and
eternal meaning, I have found revealed
in this singular dream a series of the
profoundest spiritual truths, with an
admirable application to Ravan’s pre-
sent position, which, if they but pene-
trate his heart, may lead him at once
to send back Sita, and thus terminate
this unhappy war, and preserve his life
 204

and kingdom. I will, if ye command

me, encounter, and perhaps turn aside,
the first rough edge of his violent tem-
per, by this allegorical interpretation.
If he yield to the lessons to be drawn
from it, it is well ;
if not, it will at
least gain time, and allow you ade-
quate leisure to decide, after further
consultation with the venerable Mari-
cha upon the precise shaping and
limits of the prophetic interpretation,
and to prepare for its prudential utter-
ance through his lips.'’

This proposal of Ananta Rishi was

received with delight. It might ren-
der all further reply from them unne-
cessary : at all events, it averted the
present danger, and gave time and
;

this, in the temper of the Rakshas

monarch, was a great point.
The circle was accordingly arranged
for the solemn delivery of the sage’s
 205

utterance, as at the Kirtanas, or usual

religious oratorios, where the preachers,
entitled Haridasas or Ramadasas,
according as they may be devoted
more especially to Krishna (Hari), or
to Rama, blend moral and religious
instruction with music, lyric poetry,
mythical narrative, and a dash, now
and then, of proverbial wisdom, or
amusing anecdote.
The Rishis stood up opposite the
throne in a wide semi-circle, in the
centre of which, but a little in advance,
stood Ananta and Maricha, as the chief
spokesmen, wearing each a long gar-
land of flowers round his neck. A little
behind the two Rishis, forming a small
semi-circle in rear of the larger one,
stood the musical chorus, consisting of
one player of the vina, or Indian lyre,

to pitch the key (which instrument the

speakers also, for form sake, carried on
 206

their left arms) ;

two players of the
mridang, or small mellow drum ;
and
four youths carrying in their hands two
little convex cymbals, or rather shallow
cups of silver called tala, bound toget-
her by a long string, with which they
gently beat time as they sang, and led
the chorus, in which the whole larger
semicircle of Rishis were accustomed
to join.
All being ready, Maricha despatched
his disciple Ratnakara to inform the
king ;
and, in a few minutes after, the
royal procession entered the council-
chamber, amid a loud flourish of
trumpets, and a deep on the large
roll

nagara drum, used only to announce

the presence of deities and kings.
Ravan entered first, accompanied
by his brother Bibhishana, his minis-
ters, and Senapatis, and all took up
their posts, standing to the left of the
 207

monarch’s throne, except the Prince

Bibhishana, who sat on a lower seat
upon his left. Immediately next to
Bibhishana stood the privileged Ka-
matur Rakshas, and behind the latter
the court poet Madhavi, the Water-
lily. The ministers and other com-
manders circled off to the left. Next
entered the train of Queen Mandodari,
who sat, surrounded by her standing
attendant ladies, on a high throne,
placed to the right of Ravan’s. On
the right of the good Mandodari, and
on the same throne, sat the beautiful-
eyed, noble-hearted Princess Sulo-
chana, the little Ghanta Patali being
seated snugly on a cushion between
them. On her left stood the subtle
and witty Gupta. The corpulent
Mahodari, the shrill-voiced Anunasika,
the heavy Pankamagna, and the other
court ladies, stood in a circle round
 — —

208

the throne of Mandodari. Maricha,

as the senior Rishi, sprinkled the as-
sembly with water, pronouncing the
benediction “ Kalyanam bhavatu !”
“ May happiness attend you !”
The mellow mridangs beat a soft
measure the silver bell-shaped cym-
;

bals were gently struck together as a

signal and prelude and then, amid
;

the deepest silence, and the breathless

attention of the whole court, and sur-
rounded by an expression of serious-
ness on every countenance, that gave
a tinge of sadness even to the sweet
face of little Ghanta Patali, and
banished from the features of the hila-

rious Water-lily and the Kamatur

Rakshas their habitual smile, Ananta
Rishi opened his solemn discourse, and
thus began :
 209

THE SYMBOLIC INTERPRETATION OF

THE DREAM.

Through all the scenes and inci-

dents, oh Titan !
pictured in the suc-
cession of visions — for it is vision upon
vision which compose thy mysterious
dream —there is a foreshadowing and
representation of real events, that lie

embosomed in the far future, far

beyond the precincts of thy present
life, but a representation that is dim

and indistinct, wrought out in the

capricious lines and hues that consti-
tute the hieroglyphic language of fan-
tasy, which the events of this
into
outer, world must generally be
solid
translated, before they can be either
foreshadowed or reproduced in the
phantasmal sphere of dreams.
For know, oh Titan the true na- !

ture of man, and the various conditions

o
 ;

210

of being under which he exists, and

of consciousness under which he per-
ceives.
These are represented to us in the
Vedanta system under three distinct
aspects, which, however, contain really
one and the same idea, more summarily
expressed, or more fully developed.
In the first, most summary view,
man is a duality he comprises two
modes of existence —one natural, one
reversed. The original, normal, and
true mode of his being, and which is
therefore characterised by the term
Sva-rupa, or Own-form, is the Spirit-
condition (atma-dasha) : in this his
substance or being is consolidated
Being —Thought— Bliss — in one [sach
chid-anandaghana] . His state eternal
Turya, or ecstasy. The opposite or
reversed mode of his being is the Life-
condition (Jiva-dasha), comprising a
subtle inward body or soul, and a
gross outward body of matter, exist-
ing in the two states of dreaming and
waking. Between these two condi-
tions lies a gulf of Lethe, or total un-
consciousness —a profound and dream-
less sleep.

In the second view, which is given

in the Tattva Bodha, and many other
works, the idea is further expanded :

man is there represented as a prismatic

trinity, veiling and looked through by
a primodial unity of light —gross out-
ward body ;
subtle internal body or
soul ;
a being neither body nor soul,
but absolute self-forgetfulness, called
the cause-body because ,
it is the origi-
nal sin of ignorance of his true nature
which precipitates him from the spirit
into the life-condition. These three
bodies, existing in the waking, dream-
ing, sleeping states, are all known,
witnessed, and watched, by the spirit
which standeth behind and apart from
them, in the unwinking vigilance of
ecstasy, or spirit-waking.
This prepares us for, and conducts
us to, the complete and fully-developed
view of man as a quaternity, in ex-
we must retread the
plaining which
same ground we have already gone
over, but with more care and delibera-
tion.

THE FOUR STATES AND TABERNACLES

OF MAN.

There are four spheres of existence,

one enfolding the other —
the inmost
sphere of Turya, in which the indi-
vidualised spirit lives the ecstatic life ;

the sphere of transition, or Lethe, in

which the spirit, plunged in the ocean
of Adnyana, or total unconsciousness,
and utterly forgetting its real self,
 213

undergoes a change of gnostic ten-

dency [polarity ?] ;
and from not know-
ing at all, or absolute unconsciousness,
emerges on the hither side of that
Lethean boundary to a false or reversed
knowledge of things (viparita dnyana),
under the of an illusive
influence
Pradnya, or belief and tendency to,
in,

knowledge outward from itself, in which

delusion it thoroughly believes, and now
endeavours to realise: —whereas the true
knowledge which it had in the state of
Turya, or the ecstatic life, was all
within itself, in which it intuitively knew
and experienced all things. And from
the sphere of Pradnya, or out-
knowing, — this struggle to reach and
recover outside itself all that it once
possessed within itself, and lost, —to
regain for the lost intuition an objec-
tive perception through the senses and
understanding, — in which the spirit be-
 214

came an intelligence, — it merges into

the third sphere, which is the sphere of
dreams, where it believes in a universe
of light and shade, and where all exis-
tence is in the way of Abhasa, or
phantasm. There it imagines itself

into the Linga-deha (Psyche), or

subtle, semi-material, ethereal soul,
composed of a vibrating or knowing
pentad, and a breathing or undulating
pentad. The vibrating or knowing
pentad consists of simple consciousness,
radiating into four different forms of
knowledge —the egoity or conscious-
ness of self ;
the ever-changing, de-
vising, wishing mind, imagination, or
fancy ;
the thinking, reflecting, re-

membering faculty and the appre- ;

hending and determining understand-

ing or judgment. The breathing or
undulating pentad contains the five

vital aurae —namely, the breath of life,

 215

and the four nervous aethers that pro-

duce sensation, motion, and the other
vital phenomena.

From this subtle personification and

phantasmal sphere, in due time, it

progresses into the fourth or outer-

most sphere, where matter and sense
are triumphant where the universe
;

is believed a solid reality where all ;

things exist in the mode of Akara, or

substantial form ;
and where that,
which successively forgot itself from
spirit into absolute unconsciousness,
and awoke on this side of that boun-
dary of oblivion into an intelligence
struggling outward, and from this out-
ward struggling intelligence imagined
itself into a conscious, feeling, breath-
ing nervous soul, prepared for further
clothing, now out-realises itself from
soul into a body, with five senses or
organs of perception, and five organs
 2l6

of action, to suit it for knowing and

acting in the external world, which it

once held within, but now has wrought

out of itself. The first or spiritual
state was ecstasy ;
from ecstasy it

forgot itself into deep sleep ;

from
profound sleep it awoke out of uncon-
sciousness, but still within itself, into
the internal world of dreams ;
from
dreaming it passed finally into the
thoroughly waking state, and the outer
world of sense. Each state has an
embodiment of ideas or language of its

own. The universal, eternal, ever-

present intuitions that be eternally
with the spirit in the first, are in the
second utterly forgotten for a time,
and then emerge reversed, limited and
translated into divided successive in-
tellections, or gropings, rather, of a
struggling and as yet unorganised in-

telligence, having reference to place

 217

and and an external historical

time,
world, which it seeks, but cannot all
at once realise outside itself. In the
third they become pictured by a crea-
tive fantasy into phantasms of persons,
things, and events, in a world of
light and shade within us, which is
visible even when the eyes are sealed
in dreaming slumber, and is a prophecy
and forecast shadow of the solid
world that is coming. In the fourth
the outforming or objectivity is com-
plete. They are embodied by the
senses into hard, external realities in
a world without us. That ancient
seer [Kavi Purana] which the Gita
and the Mahabharata mention as
abiding in the breast of each, is first a
prophet and poet ;
then he falls asleep,
and awakes as a blindfold logican and
historian, without materials for reason-
ing, or a world for events, but groping
 ;

2l8

towards them ;
next a painter, with an
ear for inward phantasmal music too
at last a sculptor carving out hard,
palpable solidities. Hence the events
destined to occur in this outer world
can never be either foreshown or re-
presented with complete exactitude in
the sphere of dreams, but must be
translated into its pictorial and fantas-
tical language.
But besides this dim, prophetic cha-
racter, referring to isolated events in
time, thy dream, like all other dreams,
has a more universal and enduring
significance, setting forth, as it does, in
a series of vivid symbols, a crowd ot
spiritual truths and allegories that are
eternally true to the human soul.
The prophetic hieroglyphics it is not
given me to read. That may lie

within the compass of Maricha’s pow-

ers, for he treads the difficult and
 !

219

dangerous paths of thaumaturgy, and

ventures on the perilous gaze into the
dread future. Mine be it simply to
unfold before thine eyes, oh king
the symbolic and moral interpretations
of the vision, which, if thou be wise,
will have for thee a profounder, because
a more eternal interest, than the mere
foretelling of transitory events.

THE SILENT AND DESOLATE LAND.

That desolate land in which thou

didst wander, oh Titan ! with thy
beautiful and mysterious conpanion,
where silent cities strewed the desert,
inwhich no life stirred, and no voice
was heard in the streets, but all was
death and desolation ;
where every-
thing lay still or petrified where ;

gigantic ruins lay around, and the

colossal forms of a by-gone life stared
out on thee from stone, with an impress
 a

220

of solemn and eternal beauty, uttering

a moan to the first beams of the rising
sun, offers a true type of this mournful
world. For what, in truth, is this earth
but one immense ruin, or heap of ruins
— a land of death and desolation —
desert strewn with the fragments of an
extinct past ?

If we contemplate external nature,

we find in its stupendous mountain-
chains, its gigantic volcanic peaks
shooting up aloof into the sky — its

abrupt masses of scarped rock and

table-lands — its scattered, solitary,

gigantic stones, far from their parent

mountains — its tremendous clefts, and
chasms, and valleys, the evidences
and traces of immense convulsions in
past ages. The whole earth appears
a vast assemblage of sublime ruins.
When we consult more closely the
materials which form these ruins, we
 221

find with astonishment that they too

are composed of other ruins we find ;

everywhere the marks of an extinct

world. A gigantic vegetation of con-
summate beauty in its forms ;
broken
fragments, too, of a creation of living
creatures, colossal in size, wonderful in
structure, and aweful in power, sur-
round us everywhere. The dead faces
of extinct organisations look out on us
from stone on every side with their
sad, eternal beauty ;
and, as every
fresh sun dawns upon the world of
ruins, a mournful plaint is wailed forth
from all past creations to greet his
rising, which recalls to them their own
former being.

The Chorus Sings.

Even thus, oh sun in thy eternal youth,

!

Thou once didst rise on us !

While we as yet were young, and seemed, like

thee,
To flourish in our strength.
 ;

222

And thus ten thousand years, ten thousand

ages hence,
Shalt thou arise unchanged
When those, that now appear to bloom and
live,
Like us, have passed away !

Then shall they sadly greet thy morning rising,

From their dark stony chambers,
As we do now, oh sun !

Oh sun for ever young !

If we turned, continued the Rishi,

from external nature to what is called
the living world, we look in vain for
life. Death meets us at every turn.
The terrible Yama is everywhere.
The whole animal creation appears
upon the scene, merely to pass away
by some form of violent death. To
the peaceful herds grazing on the hill-
side, Yama comes in the guise of the
tiger ;
to the innocent bleating sheep,
as wolf or hyaena. The snake seizes
the frog from his moist bed, and drags
him into his hole, or his crevice
among the stones, crushing his limbs in
 —

223

the traction. The hawk pierces with

his cruel beak the poor sparrow ;
the
sparrow, in turn, transfixes or carries off
the grub. Bird preys on bird ;
fish on
fish, as it is written in the Maha-
bharata :

The stronger fishes, after their kind, prey on

the weaker fish.
This is ever our means of living, appointed to
us eternally.

But man himself is the most terrible

incarnation of Yama. He plunges
with a savage joy into the thicket of
bamboo or sugar-cane, to attack and
slay the boar. He pursues over the
plain the timid and graceful antelope ;

his arrows outstrip his fleetness ;

and
the exhausted creature, that erst
bounded in beauty and freedom, falls

sobbing to the earth, and expires in

torture. He dumb and
gathers the
and the helpless lambs,
patient sheep,
from the pastures where they bleated
 224

in joy, and consigns them to the

slaughter-house. Behold yon porters
passing even now the court gate with
baskets on their heads full of the beau-
tiful plumage of the Cingalese cocks
gathered from the villages round Lanka,
sitting happy together, all unconscious
of their coming doom. They are bear-
ing them to the camp to feed thy
military followers. The festivity of
man is the signal of death to the
humbler creatures of the earth: he re-
joices, or weds, and they die as the
materials of his joy, victims immolated
to his household gods. Even those
creatures, upon whose flesh he has not
yet learned to feed, he harasses to
death by more protracted and painful
means. The horse, that in his youth
bore him in the day of battle or the
pompous ceremonial, is, when age ad-
vances, and his fire abates, consigned
 225

to the merciless Vaisha, who trades in

hired chariots, and you behold thou-
sands of those wretched creatures,
lean, lacerated, and panting, driven by
male Durgas (furies) through the city,

without respite from sunrise till mid-

night, till at last they drop and expire
in harness, or are rudely taken out and
cast aside into some corner to die
unseen and unpitied. And the dog,
the honest friend of man ;
and the cat,
self-adorning, playful, capricious, coy,
timid, watchful, secretive, house-loving,
but ever affectionate when gently
treated, the friend and —be not offen-
ded, good Mandodari, for thou knowest
their strong attachments — some re-
in
spects the type of woman, and the
playfellow of children, the household
Numen, and hieroglyphic of domestic
life, — what becomes of these ? Who
sees their end ? Into what by-way soli-
p
 —

226

tudes, what holes and corners do they

creep, led by a mournful instinct of
nature to conceal their agonies and
yield up their breath ? Ah how many !

tragedies of animal agony daily take place

not far from the dwelling of man, and
he knows it not, or knowing, lays it not
to heart, or laughs in scorn of sym-
pathy for animal suffering And yet all !

creatures, Manu teaches, have their

life in that awful Spirit in whom man,
too, lives, and in them as in man that
Spirit liveth

Sarvabhuteshu chatmanam, sarvabhutani chat-

mani
Saman pashyan.
In all creatures the Spirit, and all creatures in
the Spirit,
Alike beholding.

And let us look at man himself. Is

life to be found in his dwelling ? Alas !

from the cradle to the cemetery where

 227

his body is laid upon the pyre, is not

his course one long cry of suffering,

and sorrow, and terror —one long re-

miniscence and foretaste of death ?

The householder in the prime of man-

hood, and his blooming, comely ma-
tron, who stand on the mid ridge of
life, look down oneither side upon
two valleys of mourning. In one are
the cherished memories of beloved
parents she weeping for the beloved
;

father, he for the poor tender mother.

In the other, the idolised forms of
children snatched prematurely from
their arms, and weptby both alike ;

by her in loud lamentation, by him in

stifled sobs and hidden tears. The
mother dies giving birth to her babe,
or lives to weep ere long over its
corpse. Disease haunts man from his
birth. Go into the mighty city of
Lanka. In every street there passes
 228

you a funeral procession, with its red

powder, its lugubrious flowers, its

mournful rolling ululatus, and in its

rear the mourning women stand before
the door in a circle, beating their
breasts. In every house there is a cry
and a grief— an old man expiring ;
a
child struggling ;
a strong man ago-
nised ;
a woman weeping ;
a little girl

with frightened and tearful face. And,

as if the terrible avenger Yama had
not imposed on humanity a sufficient
measure of suffering and death, man
goes forth himself in gold, and plumes,
and gay caparisons, to crush the limbs,
and dash out the brains, and pierce the
heart and bowels of his fellow-man.
And on the battle-field are left hor-
rible sights, terrible cries, and fearful
smells of death. And in the city the
women weep, and break their bangles,
and shave their heads, and put on
 229

grey unbleached or russet garments, and

are thenceforth held to be of evil omen.
Oh tragic man ! whence is all this
death in thy life ? Alas ! it is because
an inward moral death reigns through-
out all, that it must have this outward

manifestation also. Men’s souls are

dead when they are born this life is :

the autopsy, and the disease is made

manifest to all. One died mad of
pride ;
one phrenetic with anger ;
one
leprous with sensuality ;
one had the
fever of ambition ;
one suffered from
the insatiable craving of greed ;
one
from the malignant venom of revenge ;

one from the jaundice of jealousy ;

one
from the eating cancer of envy ;
one
from a surfeit of self-love ;
one from
the paralysis of apathy. Many were
the diseases, but death into this world
the common result of all.

Yes, death is triumphant here —death,

 230

physical and moral. The dead bring

forth the dead the dead bear the dead
;

to the funeral pyre the dead walk

;

about the streets and greet each other,

and bargain, and buy and sell, and
—
marry, and build and know not all
the time that they are but ghosts and
phantasms That land of silence and
!

shadows of desolation and ruins of

; ;

sorrow and death, in which thy soul

walked in the vision, oh Titan ! is the
world which thy dead body now
in
walks waking. Renounce and annihilate
it, oh king by asceticism and divine
!

gnosis, and thus return to real life.

THE THREE MIRAGES.

Of the mirages which attracted thy
observation on thy first entrance into
the desert, and which again beset thy
path after thou hadst forsaken the
cavern of the Divars, and plunged into
 231

the silent wilderness, two have been

already interpreted in thy own descrip-
tion. That blue Mriga-jala, or deer-
water, which mocks the weary hart, and
deceives the human traveller, in the
wilderness, typifies, indeed, those false
rivers of delight and, delusive hopes
of happiness, which the world spreads
afar off before the longing pilgrim
who is a wayfarer in this wilderness,
to lure him on in the perpetual pur-
suit of an unreal content and joy, but
which ever vanish as we approach, and
mock the fainting soul in the very mo-
ment of expected fruition.
That white mirage which built up
the Gandharva city of fairy palaces in
the clouds, to melt again like mist into
the air, is the emblem of that delusion
which sets the blinded soul, instead of
staying at home and attending to itself,
and seeking its satisfaction there only
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232

where abiding peace is to be found, in

itself, in seeking to know itself, and to
recover its own true relation, a partici-
pation in the divine nature, —urges it

for ever to depart far from itself, to

forget itself, and its own high birthright
and build up for its solace vain projects
in the distance —magnificent fairy
castles and palaces in the clouds, or in
the land of dreams, which ever dissolve
as soon as built, and leave the soul in
disappointment to begin afresh.
But the Kala Vivarta, that flittering
black mirage, or mirage of Time, has
a more special signification. This beset
thee at the outset, to denote, that, in
all the events that were to follow in
thy dream — in all the visions which
were shown, and all which in relation
thereto may yet be called up before
thee, as well as in all the voices of in-
terpretation which shall be uttered to
 233

thee —Time shall stand in a reversed

relation, its unities and succession be
broken, its distinctions confounded.
The far, become pre-
far future shall

sent or past, the past become future,

the present be pictured as yet to come
or long gone by. All distinction and
succession shall be forgotten and lost
in an eternal present. Without this
indication from the black mirage,
neither the dream nor its interpreta-
tion would be intelligible.
But such a confusion and total re-
version were impossible, if these dis-
tinctions were in their own nature real
and eternal and here we at length
;

reach the profounder and enduring

signification of the mirages, which
thou, oh Titan ! art, perhaps, as yet
scarcely prepared to receive.
The blue mirage, which operates in
space, and alters its relations, which
 ;

234

presents the lake water as close at

hand, and then withdraws it afar off
for ever deluding the eye with imagin-
ary and ever-changing distances, ty-
pifies the temporary, delusive, and
unreal nature of Space itself. Space
has no real existence to Spirit. It is

merely an order in which Spirit, when

bound in the fetters of the intellect,
shut up in the cell of the soul, and
barred and bolted in securely within
the prison of the body, is compelled to
look out piecemeal on True Being,
which is essentially one, in a broken,
multitudinous,and successive way.
Space is a mere How. It is not a
What. It is a method of analysis, an
intervalling or ruling off, to enable the
multitudinous figures by which the in-
tellect is compelled to express diffu-

sively the totality which is one, but

which, from its own now fractional na-
 235

ture, it cannot contemplate in unity,

to be severally set down.
Time, too, is a How, and not a
What, a method of analysis, interval-
ling, or ruling off, which intellect em-
ploys to enable it to contemplate in
successive parts the one eternal, divine
Thought, when broken into fractional,
successive intellections ;
and the one
eternal, divine Sentiment, when re-

vealed to limited natures in history, or

a succession of broken events. And
this is what is indicated by the black
mirage that to Spirit, Time has no
real existence : it is only a necessary
method and instrument of finite intel-
lect.

What the blue image indicates as to

Space, what the black as to Time, the
white mirage, with its Gandharva fairy
cities in the clouds, ever changing
their form, and dissolving into nothing,
 236

typifies as to the multitudinous diver-

sified forms of Matter in the universe.
They have no real existence. They
are the multitudinous, transient phe-
nomena thrown off in space and time,
by that which is ever one, constant,
unchanging, and hath its being out-
side, and beyond both Space and
Time —enfolding both : the current
hieroglyphic writing in which it reveals
itself, and in which alone it can be
read by Spirit fallen into finite intel-

lect, when it hath lost its pristine dig-

nite and purity of nature.
And the same doctrine is applicable
to individual personalites, which all

arise and re-subside, like waves, into

the infinite impersonal ocean of Being,
but for the contemplation of this mys-
tery thou art not yet fully prepared,
oh Titan ! nor has it any type in the
three images, which typify only Space,
 :

237

Time, and multitudinous divided Mat-

ter. To sum up. To Spirit, or True
Being, there is no Space, no Time, no
diversified Matter, no multitudinous
Personality, no successive Thought, no
historical Event.
True Being is universal, uniform,
constant, unchanging, and eternal
and is termed Sach-Chid-Ananda-
Ghana, a compacted Being, Thought,
Joy. Being culminating to conscious-
ness ;
conscious Thought returning
and entering into Being with an eter-
nal Joy. Being worketh eternally in
the depths, but knoweth not itself.
Thought, generated in the eternal
centre, giveth forth the Great Ut-
terance, and calleth out, I am Brimh.

Being becometh thus revealed unto

itself Thought, and between the
in
Thought and the Being, an eternal Joy
ariseth and 'these three are one Ghana,
:
 — —: ;

238

or solidarity of eternal life, filling all

things,and yet minuter than an atom.

That is the true Dneya, or object of
wisdom of it Krishna sayeth in the
;

Gita, Lecture xm :

The Chorus Sings the Object of Wisdom.

Without beginning and supreme — even Brimh,

Which neither can be said to be, nor not to be,
All hands and feet all faces, heads, and eyes
;

All ears it sitteth in the great world’s centre,

—
;

Possessing the vast whole. Exempt from

organ,
.

It is the light which shineth through all organs.

—
Containing all things unattached to any;

— —
Devoid of properties partaking all
Inside and outside the moveable and motion-
less,
Throughout ail nature — Inconceivable
From the extreme minuteness of its parts.
It standeth at a distance, yet is present.
Is undivided, yet in all things standeth
Divided :
—
of all things it is the ruler.
That which destroyeth now, and now pro-
duceth.
—
The light of lights declared exempt from dark-
ness,
Wisdom, and wisdom’s aim, and wisdom’s fruit,
And within every breast presideth That!
And thus is this inconceivable True
 — — —

239

Being described by Mukunda Raja, in

the Viveka Sindhu, Lect. hi. For, after
first noticing the duality of Soul and

God-
in the sky of Own-Form [or True-Being] , in
that which is devoid of property, ariseth an
utterance of “ Jiv-Eshvara,” 44 Living creature
and Lord ” [or 44 Soul and God.”] The eradication
of this dual utterance from that place of unity,
thou art to effect by self-realisation alone.

And then, laying down ecstatic con-

centration to be the great remedy for
this disease called life :

Wherefore this Sumadhi, or Self-Concen-

tration, the divine tree of healing for those
is
suffering under the disease of existence by it ;

is ended the anguish and the pain which belong

to pleasure in sensible objects.

He proceeds to describe True Being,

the fountain of all existence :

The Chorus Sings the Fountain of

Existence.
That which, distinct from the Power-wheels [or
Power-spheres] is all sense, without parts
,

that immaculate Own-bliss, understand to be

Para-Brimh or most high Brimh.
,
 —

240

That wherein this trinity or three-fold relation

—the and the [medium
seer, the object of sight,
or process of] vision, disappears, that know to
be supreme Brimh, devoid of opposition.
—
That wherein this trio the knower, the [me-
dium or process of] knowledge, and the thing
to be known, does not exist —
that, my son,
know to be supreme Brimh, undual.
If we would denominate it knowledge, there is
there no knowing if we would call it ignorance,
;

there is there no not knowing if we would

;

term it nonentity, behold, it is a wonderful

hidden treasure, without beginning being, even
from all eternity.
Nonenity is nought. The opinion of those
who contend for [Brimh* being] nought, is vile.
Happy they who in the world understand this,
knowers of Brimh.
If we say it is, how are we to present it ? If
we say it is not, how are we to get rid of it ?
In a word, this Brimh, let those know to whom
it belongs.
It is what stirreth him who is asleep, what
awakeneth him who is stirred, what causeth him
who is awake to feel [pleasure and pain] but ,

it is itself without act.

As the heart of the crystal rock has a soli-
darity without interval, so supreme Brimh is
one compact mass of consciousness.
Or again, it is all hollow, like the aethereal
space pervasible, yet apart from the pervasion
; ;

beautifully shining with its own light itself ;

alone !

Brahma, Vishnu, and Maheshvara, when

 . — —
;

241

they become exhausted carrying on their re-

spective operations [of creation, preservation,
and destruction] then use the house of rest
,

namely, Own Brimh. [These active energies

no longer working, subside into Brimh the —
sabbatical form of Divine Being, in which there
is no action]
That wherein is neither science nor nescience
which cannot be compared to any other thing ;

which is to be known to itself alone that know ;

to be the divine science, the supreme Brimh,

Own-Form.
Which even Sarv-Eshvara, or the All Lord
himself, if he assume the egoity of knowing,*
even he knoweth not the furthest limits of that
Own- Form.
Wherefore egoity vanishes there, imagination
also disappears, that Brimh itself only compre-
hendeth its own Self-Realization.
After comprehending and pervading a thou-
sand universes, within and without, the Su-
preme Brimh Own-Form is over entire, without
residue [or deficiency] and without interval
,

[or separation of parts] .f

As the clouds melt into the aethereal space and

* I.e., if Brimh become Sarv-Eshvara; if going out of

the infinite impersonal all consciousness, in which there

is neither knowing, nor not knowing, he assume the egoity
of knowing, and thus become the egoistic and personal
God, the all Lord, as such he knoweth not, and cannot
know, the limits of that essence from which he has come
forth, of that Own-Form, which is pure Brimh.
“ Spreads undivided, operates unspent.” Pope.
f

Q
 —

242

cease to be, so in Own-Form the film of Maya:

when that is dissolved, wholly Bvimh [or the
absolute] alone is.

Recurring again in Lecture v. to

the duality of the Soul and God, into
which this primordial unity is sepa-
rated, he calls the former Thou, the
latter That in this isolation, and thus
he describes the divine principle which
he calls That :

The Chorus Sings the Eternal That.

Without the word That, the Lord the word
Thou (individual soul) hath no subsistence;
hear then again regarding the word That.
He who is Param Atma, or Supreme Spirit;
Mahan Vishnu or the Great Pervader Adi
, ;

Punisha the Primordial Soul Bhagavana the

, ; ,

Glorious One Sach-chid-ananda-ghana the soli-

; ,

darity of Being, Thought, and Joy in one, He

has been before declared unto thee.
He who is the All-Spirit, the All-Witness,
the All-Lord, who is present within the bosom
of every creature, who is never indifferent to
his own servants ;

That God without beginning and subtile

[inapprehensible or unsearchable] who exhibits ,

this universe, which is not who again hideth

;
 ; —
;;

2 43

it as a thing departed, though still in the same

place.
Who, without ears, heareth without eyes, ;

seeth without tongue, tasteth every flavour

; ;

Who, without feet, walketh everywhere

without hands, taketh and giveth who by a ;

wish alone emancipates the soul

Who, being close, is yet afar off standing ;

afar off, is yet within the soul through whose ;

power the organs are quickened to perform

theirown offices ;

As the one sun shineth in every country, so

the same Supreme Spirit illumineth every
creature — life, or soul.
This delicate word That is a body of pure
intelligence —
without form pervading all things
,

yet, for the sake of his own worshippers, assum-

ing an external shape.

There the When is an eternal Now.

The Where an eternal Here.
The What and the Who are one.
A universal “ That — — [So-Ham] —
I”
impersonal merging into personal, per-
sonal returning into impersonal, and
feeling its identity with it.

But True Being is broken by the

prism of Maya into a multitudinous
phenomenal development, and it is
 —

244

then only it can be contemplated by

Spirit become fractional itself, and
fallen into finite intellect. As it is

sung by the virgin poetess of Alandi

A change, a mirage ariseth in True Being;
From the one, the many are evolving.

In this evolution, which is pheno-

menal only, the seed germinates into
a thousand roots and shoots ;
the mo-
nad of light breaks into ten thousand
rays. The sphere is spun out into an
infinite thread ;
the lump of gold be-
comes broken into ten millions of jewels
of infinite variety of make and pattern.
The Sat, Being, or substance of
the Primordial Triad, is spread out
into the phenomena of infinite material
universes.
The one central Chit, or Conscious-
ness, into infinite personalities and
lives.

The unity That-I [So-Ham] which

 —

245

is the experience of the original con-

sciousness, becomes dissevered first

into That and Thou, and then into

infinite I’s,and Thous, and Thats.
The eternal Thought united with
this Consciousness, into infinite suc-
cessive and systems of
cognitions,
science, philosophy, and literature.
The Ananda, its harmonious Joy,
into infinite tones of sentiment and
passion, which produce the result of
tragic history.
The infinite Here is rolled into
space.
The eternal punctual Now, into suc-
cessive time.
And the divine, eternal, and round
life True Being becomes evolved
of
and extended, and rolled out, as it
were, into successive history.
And that prismatic Maya itself
But I fear, said the, Rishi, seeing the
 246

bewildered faces of his audience —and

feeling he was getting beyond their
comprehension, — I fear I begin to grow
unintelligible.
Ravan said nothing. He was com-
pletely mystified ;
and was just then
puzzling himself in the endeavour to
solve in his own mind the problem,
whether he had ten heads, or one, or
any head at all, on his shoulders, — if

he had shoulders.
“ I should like to know,” said the
arch Gupta, in a low voice, as if

speaking to herself, but quite loud

enough to be overheard, as she
intended, in the whole circle, “ whether
Madhavi Panza is a How or a What.”
“ In good Rishi,” said the
truth,
stout and simple Mandodari, with
downright frankness, “I do not com-
prehend you. I cannot understand at
all what you mean by the True Being
 247

being rolled out into space and history.

Am I not, for example, a true being ?

Now I cannot for the life of me con-

ceive myself being rolled out into any
sort of history, or into space or time
either, without disappearing altogether
under such a process.”
“ These matters, oh transcendent
Ezamana !
” said Sulochana rever-
entially, “are above the comprehension
of us poor females ;
explain to us
rather, great Rishi, the vision of Zin-
garel. As she is a woman, we may
understand more of her than of such
subtile matters as Time and Space.”
“ Oh !
yes, dear Guru,” said little

Ghanta Patali, clapping her tiny hands

with a look of delight, “ tell us all

about that poor, dear Zingarel, and

the terrible alligator, and that darling
little cow of the sea.”
The Rishi was not sorry for this di-
 ;

248

version. Perhaps he may have felt, if

the truth could be seen, that he was

getting out of his own depth, and be-
coming unintelligible even to himself.
The ground of allegory, at all events,
he thought, would be firmer and safer,
than the transcendental metaphysics of
the Vedanta philosophy. The moral,
at least, would be clearer to the women
and he knew all their influence on
history, even when refusing, like the
good Mandodari, to be personally
rolled out into it.

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